


Finding Balance

by Cosmic_Biscuit



Category: Tiger & Bunny
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Blood Magic, Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-20
Updated: 2012-05-20
Packaged: 2017-11-05 16:27:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 23,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/408543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cosmic_Biscuit/pseuds/Cosmic_Biscuit
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After years of languishing in a run-down so-called circus, a shapeshifting tiger has found himself with a very unusual new master.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Finding Balance

The usual racket began when the door opened, but the tiger in the corner cage no longer even bothered to raise his head. Ever since the reedy little shrub of an animal trainer had found out the hard way that the wards on his cage only kept him sealed, rather than making him loyal like the trapper had promised, the circus employees were more than happy to give him a very wide berth.

Fine by him.  
  
Most of the time.  
  
It wasn't like he needed food every day the way the normal animals scattered about in their freakish little menagerie did, but the boredom of having been left back in this dreary little wagon room every day for the majority of the last four years and lack of space occasionally got frustrating.  
  
He ignored the sound of the ringmaster chattering away at someone. When he wasn't bothering to put on a grandiose performance for the crowd, the man's voice was gratingly nasal, and the less he had to listen to it, the better. Besides-  
  
"What about this one?"  
  
When he realized the new, much nicer voice was close enough that the stranger had to have stopped by his cage, he cracked an eye open.  
  
Green eyes so pale that they seemed to glow in the backlight of the ringmaster's torch regarded him studiously. The human looked younger than his voice implied; probably had only just recently reached adulthood a season or so ago. Ignoring the protests of the ringmaster that oh, no, this creature hardly warranted a second look, the stranger, much to his surprise, calmly removed gauntlet and glove from one hand and offered it through the bars.  
  
Huh. That was hardly normal, given humans' usual reactions to him. Curiosity aroused by the strange advance, the tiger rolled to his feet and shook the hay off his green stripes before leaning down to sniff. The stranger smelled of the metal and leather armor he wore, and cold trees and ice. Either they'd ended up going north this time, or the stranger was a wide traveler.  
  
Testing boundaries, seeing how the human would respond, he nipped the slender outstretched fingers just hard enough to draw blood. Despite the fretful, worried gasp the ringmaster made at a perceived threat to someone who must have had some kind of importance, the young man didn't falter. Instead, the tiger found himself making a soft rumble of startled pleasure when, instead of drawing away, fingertips made a light sweep just _so_ under his chin.  
  
 _Oh._  
  
Oh, this human was _very_ different.  
  
He purred louder, leaning into the hand that continued petting him, and he thought he saw the faintest ghost of a smile cross the man's mouth before the stranger turned away.  
  
"How much to take him off your hands?" the stranger asked the ringmaster, and the tiger couldn't help perking up just a little. Anywhere besides this cage would be a vast improvement, and the unusual young man would be a _nice_ bonus.  
  
The ringmaster blustered and stalled, but the tiger could tell that it was merely about trying to drive up the price. The little old bastard would be as happy to see him go as he was to leave. But just to remind the man of that fact, the tiger made a soft growl under his breath that made the old man jump a little. "Er- just... just a minute, young sir," the ringmaster said, suddenly very willing to get the sale over with. "I must go get his papers. And we will have to do the binding ritual for you."  
  
Still mumbling to himself, the ringmaster vanished, leaving the pair of them alone. Without the annoying presence, the tiger subtly moved closer to his master-to-be to study him further. He was used to seeing scarred humans in armor, but the only one visible from his angle of view was a strange pattern at the neck that wasn't quite hidden by the man's gold hair. It looked burned in, ringing his throat like a collar or a lead. Otherwise, the man was unblemished.  
  
Interesting.  
  
The ringmaster returned with a few papers, a scroll covered in runes, a knife, and a heavy leather collar. The tiger lifted his whiskers in amusement that the bastard was going to try to foist some kind of trickery off on the young man, just as the trapper had done to him, but stayed put to watch. The stranger was surprisingly calm about being asked to participate in any kind of blood magic, and held still as his bared hand was cut just deep enough to wet the leather collar before binding his hand and putting the gauntlet back on.  
  
The constant prickling under the tiger's skin vanished when the cage door came down, but quick, skilled hands fastened the collar around his throat before he could do anything. He made a soft growl of surprised confusion at the actual feel of something radiating from the strap of leather; blood magic sure as hell hadn't worked when the ringmaster had used his own... Maybe something more was up with the stranger than just odd eyes and scars.  
  
It wasn't uncomfortable, though. Rather than an irritating itch, there was just a sort of soft warmth. Whatever was there still wasn't very strong, and he probably could have overcome it if he wanted to. Chomped the ringmaster in half if he felt like it.  
  
Then he glanced at the young man who was handing over payment, and decided no. He wanted to see where this would lead.  
  
The stranger -his master- turned back to him with a curtly dismissive gesture in the ringmaster's direction, then reached up. The tiger purred again when fingers found the itchy spot behind his right ear without him even having to guide them. "I assume you can understand me, since your sort usually do," the man said. "Come."  
  
He didn't much like the imperiousness of the command, but they were still getting to know each other, as it were. That could always be trained away if it got too annoying. The tiger leaped down from his former home and stretched luxuriously, now that he had the space to do so, then followed his new master.  
  
  
  
They only went a little ways out of the town before the human stopped to make a small fire. Though the tiger was grateful for the reprieve -one problem with having been in the cage so long, it seemed, was that his body was no longer accustomed to walking great distances- but he was also curious. People with dangerous pets weren't banned from inns, unless a great deal had changed since he'd been caged, and his new master could clearly afford lodging. So why were they out _here_?  
  
He was still puzzling over it when the young man looked him over with a critical eye.  
  
"Hm," he murmured, apparently coming to a decision. "You stay here," he ordered flatly, then got up.  
  
The tiger made a little growl of displeasure as the human vanished into the woods armor-less and armed with a bow. What had _that_ been about? _'Brat,'_ he thought rebelliously as he laid down by the fire, resting his head on his paws. It seemed they were definitely going to have to do something about that attitude.  
  
He hadn't intended to doze off, but when he was roused by the smell of something _deliciously_ tempting, the sky had gone dark. Yawning widely, he shook his head a little to wake himself up, and found that the source of the appetizing smell was three little game hens roasting by the campfire. His master carefully removed the stakes from where they'd been embedded into the ground, and the tiger blinked in surprise when the stake with two on it was laid in front of him.  
  
"I don't know how much you eat," his master said as he sat down with his own meal. "Hopefully this will hold you over until I can go out again in the morning."  
  
The tiger looked down at the roasted hens. His master had done extra hunting. For _him_. Because the human had somehow been able to tell he was in no condition to catch his own, sure, but still. His master had made that _extra effort_ for _him_ , and said he would continue to do so. That was... very strange as far as his string of owners went. Even when caged, he'd usually been left to make do on his own, or just do without.  
  
Maybe he could let the earlier dismissal slide just this once, he decided before tearing into the first hen.  
  
  
  
  
By the third day of their travels, he was recovered enough to hunt for himself. His master surprised him again by giving him free range to do so, allowing him to wander to and from their campfires at will. It made him more inclined to continue forgiving the biting tone the human used on the occasions that he _did_ issue commands.  
  
And he also got more chances to observe. Even when wearing the heavy metal armor, his master was quick and agile; a skilled hunter and tracker. He was also very good with directions and finding paths where there were none, which was definitely a good thing since the young man had a strange aversion to the roads other people took.  
  
In fact, his master was downright _generous_ with words when it came to him as compared to his fellow humans, the tiger noticed. The young man seemed to take special care to avoid people, only allowing them to cross paths or converse when he had no other choice. Even when an ill turn of cold rain forced them to seek shelter, his master would not accept a room, instead paying for a bed to be brought out to the barn.  
  
He did, however, pay extra for warm baths to be drawn for both of them, and the tiger happily blew bubbles as he wedged himself as deep into the tub he'd been lead to as he possibly could, glad to finally have something other than his own tongue to wash away the dust and muck in his fur. He peeked crocodile-like over the edge of the tub as the human undressed for his own bath, and was surprised to see more of the strange burn scars about the young man's wrists and thighs.  
  
Bindings of some sort, maybe? Perhaps his new master was an escaped slave. Or a criminal. Either would explain his aversion to other humans or his strange ways of handling money.  
  
Or maybe he'd been some sort of kept pet himself. He was clearly familiar with the uses of blood magic, and the tiger had seen unscrupulous nobles use it before to bind some poor unlucky sucker they'd taken a shine to. He watched as the human sank into the warm water with a grateful sigh and closed his eyes as he tilted his head back against the rim, and suddenly, the pet option seemed so much more likely than the other two. Even in his natural shape, the tiger could admit that his master was a very _pretty_ creature, which would make him a very good target for such depraved sorts.  
  
Lost in thought, he made a small snort and nearly inhaled water at the feel of fingers against his ears, and snapped out of his reverie to find the human had reached across the gap between them. "Such a serious face," his master teased, the warm water having apparently improved his mood considerably.  
  
The tiger rumbled in response and flicked water at the young man with his tail, earning a surprisingly pleasant laugh.  
  
The evening went without further further conversation, the two of them curling up on a pallet under the area of the roof that was the driest. But the tiger didn't get much sleep that night, still wondering what sort of person he'd allowed himself to become tethered to.  
  
  
  
"I really should be calling you something besides Tiger, but I'm afraid I am terrible with names, so I hope you don't mind bearing for now."  
  
Tiger merely lifted his whiskers at the human's apologetic expression and kicked dirt over their fire as they set out again.  
  
The further north they traveled, however, the more it became clear that his master was starting to have trouble with... _something_. He chose even more secluded areas for their camps than before, petted him less than usual, and more than once the tiger had been woken up by the human shivering fitfully in his sleep. Sure, it was starting to get pretty damn cold, but... something was... was very off about this.  
  
He just couldn't pinpoint what.  
  
They made camp just like they had for the last six nights in a row, and though Tiger brought back an extra snowbird, his master didn't eat at all before quietly hunkering down into his bedroll for the night. Concerned that perhaps this was all some form of taking ill, the tiger carefully curled himself around his master to keep him warm as he went to sleep himself.  
  
At the first feel of movement, he opened his eyes. Then made a startled hiss when the human jerked away with a hoarse gasp, lurching out of his bedding and away from the tree protecting them from the snowfall. The young man staggered into the snow blindly, and, worried, Tiger followed, hiding himself in the bushes.  
  
He _really_ wasn't prepared for the sight that met him when he cautiously poked his head through the other side of the foliage.  
  
His master was kneeling in the snow, huddled and clutching his neck as if in terrible pain, but what kept the tiger from automatically trying to go to him was the fact that his eyes and the binding scars were all _glowing_ a very bright blue, standing out in the darkness like a beacon against the snow.  
  
The glow finally faded, and the human hunched over, resting his head on his knees with what sounded like a quiet sob of "Dammit. I thought I had more time." Then he unsteadily got to his feet, wiping his eyes, and the tiger quickly scooted back to their camp to pretend that the outburst hadn't disturbed him at all.  
  
The young man silently returned to his bedroll, and the tiger could feel him shaking, both from whatever had just happened to him and from the cold air chilling the sweat that covered his body. Careful not to make it too obvious, Tiger curled back around him again, listening to the sound of his breathing until he was sure his master was asleep.  
  
What in the nine hells had that been? In all the decades he'd lived, the tiger had never seen _any_ kind of blood magic do that, not even the collar wards put on human pets.  
  
He was shaking a little himself now.  
  
  
  
  
  
It was still bothering him when he was out hunting two days later. Distracted by his own thoughts, he didn't notice the markings scratched into a tree he passed.  
  
A sudden sharp itching in his whiskers was the only warning he got before the trap sprung itself. He'd regained enough strength to use some of his own magic, so he tried destabilizing his shape to escape through the bars before the cage could close all the way, only for a sharp _crack_ of rune wards to fling him back against the bars on the other side. Yowling and snarling in anger and frustration - even with his mind on other things, how could he have been so blindly stupid not to expect other hunters to show up eventually?- he clawed and chewed at the bars in desperation, not caring about the burns he received as a result.  
  
"Damn, fellas, lookie here. We caught a big one this time."  
  
"Shifter, too. Look at the wards."  
  
He backed away from the bars, ears flat, and hissed at the men as they approached.  
  
"He'll make a fine price. Shifter fur alone sells for a mint."  
  
Fur? Why would they be talking about- He froze when he saw the tattoo on one's face as the man noticed his collar and leaned in for a closer look. Oh, shit. _Everyone_ of his kind knew the sword and snake mark. He'd lost more than a few friends to the ring of magic-based poachers and smugglers.  
  
This was bad, he thought as one loaded a crossbow for the execution. This was _very_ bad. He had to-  
  
"Excuse me. That's my companion you're trying to steal."  
  
His master approached from another part of the clearing, leaving behind his own catch. His expression was calm, almost unnervingly so.  
  
However, a couple of the poachers grinned on seeing him. "Yeah? And what're you gonna do about it, pretty boy?" one mock-cooed, stalking forward like some kind of big predator himself. The grin turned into a blatant leer as the man reached out to caress his master's face. "Maybe if you give us something _nice_ , sweetheart, we can-"  
  
His master moved, there was an audible _snap_ , and the man cut off with a howl as he backed away, holding a broken wrist. "You little _bitch_!"  
  
Incensed at the injury of one of their own, the other men drew their weapons. His master pulled a knife and short sword from under his heavy fur cloak, and everything blurred into confusing motion until the young man got close enough to shatter the lock of the cage with a vicious kick. The wards broken, Tiger eagerly surged through the bars with a snarl, lunging with teeth bared at the first poacher to cross his path.  
  
By the time the bastards figured out they were outclassed and fled, three men lay dead in the snow. His master crouched to clean his weapons, and the tiger pranced over. He'd known his master could hunt, but he'd never expected that the young man could _fight_ as well. And his master had fought all those men to save him. _Him._ It gave Tiger the same fluttery feeling in his stomach that had come the first time the young man had hunted for him, and he affectionately nuzzled and licked the human's face, ears, and neck, purring loudly.  
  
Scary mysterious past be damned, he was really glad to have the man for his master right now.  
  
The young man chuckled softly and rubbed his ears in return before putting a hand to his muzzle and gently pushing him away. "Come on," he murmured. "We'd best get back on the move before they bring more friends."  
  
Tiger was more than happy to agree to that, pressing against the human's side as they retrieved the snared food and went back to break up their camp. He couldn't help but notice, though, that as they worked, his master kept glancing over at him and getting this... strangely _sad_ expression on his face.  
  
Tiger wondered why.  
  
  
  
  
His master was even quieter as they continued their path north and east, no longer even giving him the occasional order or direction. Out of confusion and a little frustration with this change of attitude, Tiger tried intentionally testing both the bonds of his collar and the human's patience in an attempt to _provoke_ the young man to snap at him, just so he'd be saying _something_. But all chewing on everything leather he could get his teeth on and stealing food during meals had gotten was an absent ear scratch and another fish nudged in his direction.  
  
Four nights after the encounter with the poachers, Tiger woke up to another strange explosion of the blue light. His master was visibly not well this time when he returned. But again, he just curled up quietly in his bedroll, and Tiger was left to lie awake with his nose itching from the smell of burnt air.  
  
The next morning, they came to a stone wall of some kind. Tiger had heard stories before about the homes of the northern lords: massive fortresses hewn into the sides of mountains that housed their entire villages, but he'd never actually been far enough north to see one for himself.  
  
He had a nervous feeling about this place, though. As they walked along the wall, there were no guards on it. There was no sound at _all_ , except for the deep snow crunching under them and the sound of the wind that blew around occasionally. Shouldn't there have been at least livestock or something? Surely even humans in this weather had herds of _some_ kind.  
  
And the other weird thing was, there were no gates to be found. Just solid stone. His sharp eyes could pick out irregularities where gates might have _once_ been-  
  
Stopping at a point in the wall, his master removed a gauntlet and pricked his hand with the tip of his knife before pressing it against an odd little recess. Tiger couldn't help hissing a little when a small portion of the wall rippled and vanished to let them in. So there were still ways to enter. But the gates...  
  
The wall re-closed itself behind them, and it was immediately evident why it had been so eerily silent from the other side.  
  
They were the only ones here.  
  
  
  
  
He walked with his back straight and head held high like always, but the ghost village seemed to weigh on his master as they made their way through it. Even covered in snow, it was evident that whatever had happened, had happened in a hurry, and every empty house and stall just seemed to thicken the air of sadness that had wrapped itself around the human. Concerned, Tiger butted his head against his master's hip and received a light pat on the head, though the young man didn't look at him.  
  
They made their way higher up the hill and towards the central castle cut into the cliff. Another cut and another blood ward allowed them to enter, and only once they were closed off from the village and the falling snow did his master finally slump a little. Provisions they'd carried fell to the floor as the human sank back against the wall, the tension that had kept him upright through the village melting away and taking his strength with it.  
  
Tiger butted him again, burying his massive head against the human's chest, and his master finally seemed to become aware that he was still there. Leather-clad fingers scratched the back of his neck just above the collar. "I'm sorry," his master murmured softly, voice unsteady. "It's never easy coming home."  
  
He'd guessed as much from the blood wards but, looking around the main hall as the human petted him, Tiger felt a little ill. _This_ was how his master lived when he wasn't traveling? All alone in some cold, long-abandoned fortress? Small wonder the human had been looking for some sort of company, but the tiger couldn't help but wonder why his master was so averse to seeking out his own kind. It had to have something to do with the strange ward scars-  
  
A hand lightly pushed at his nose, cutting into his thoughts, and he obediently backed up a few paces to let his master up. "You're free to explore as you like," the young man said. "Your collar should let you pass in and out." Tiger made a tiny whine in response, and his master managed a weak smile. "I'll set up some fires to warm the place," he said, misinterpreting the noise. "Then I'm just going to lie down for a bit. We'll go hunting later, okay?"  
  
Not even bothering to pick up his things, the human unsteadily wandered off, and Tiger worriedly followed, keeping a watchful eye on his master until the man finally collapsed into one of the very few beds in any of the rooms. Only once he was satisfied that his master was asleep did Tiger act on the offer, stalking through the hallways to investigate the place.  
  
Like the village below, it seemed the castle had been emptied in a hurry. Most of what very little furniture had been left behind had probably been abandoned because it had been broken in the rush or too heavy to carry, and the tiger found whole rooms in the food storage area that hadn't even been touched. Snow blew in through cracked panes -this place must have once been doing _really_ damn well to have actual glass in the windows- and dust covered almost everything.  
  
Three glories, the place was lonely.  
  
His collar could indeed get him through warded openings, but regular doors proved to be an annoying challenge to paws as big as his. His explorations would go a whole lot easier if he'd recovered enough to create his human shape... but like hell he was doing it in a place as chilly as this without anything to cover him. Luckily, in one of the open storage rooms, he found a pile of clothing that was still in reasonably good shape. None of it was a perfect fit, but he found enough pieces to make a decent outfit, and carefully got to work restructuring his body.  
  
It didn't hurt, especially, but it was energy consuming, and he was panting a bit by the time he looked down and found himself fully human-shaped. Not wanting to wait around for his own sweat to freeze, he quickly wriggled into clothes and heavy boots, then set off to do some more investigating.  
  
One floor up from where his master slept, he cautiously opened a door and was stunned to find the entire hall beyond it was _black_ with charred wood and scorched stone. What had happened _here?_ He carefully tested to make sure the floor would hold his weight, then prowled deeper. Bits of burned furniture littered the floors of open rooms, and cold breezes through heat-shattered windows had long blown away any ashes. But one room he could still identify as having been some sort of bedroom, and on one wall, the remains of a painting hung.  
  
Bits of canvas flaked off under his fingers, so he had to be extra careful as he took it down and smoothed it out to see.  
  
Then sucked in a breath.  
  
A stern-faced man with dark hair and beard and a very pretty woman, both wearing the furs and armor of northern nobility stared back at him. The coat of arms on the shoulder of the man's armor had what looked like a rabbit head prominent in it, which he found amusing for reasons he couldn't name. But the thing that drew his attention most was the child the woman held, barely old enough to have inherited her pale gold curls.  
  
It had to be his master. Every instinct he had insisted on it. But if that was him in the painting-  
  
-No wonder the wards had responded to his blood. As the son of the lord and lady of the fortress, he would have been bound enough to it in order to make them himself, with or without training.  
  
But still, that nagging why itched in his brain. Even though his kind didn't much practice it, he understood loyalty to family, but this was clearly something so much _bigger_ than that.  
  
A quiet ringing noise caught his attention, and he looked out the window to see a series of runes in the same dark pink as those his master had opened circle around a space in the courtyard. Some kind of summoning call, from the looks of it. But whom would his master be contacting?  
  
Leaving the burned hallway, he abandoned the human shape and clothing and went to find the young man.  
  
His master was sitting at the table nearest the windows facing the court. Sleep appeared to have done him no good; he was shaking a little when Tiger approached. Squinting to peer close, the tiger could just barely make out a weak, pulsing glow at the binding scars, and nosed his master's hand in concern. That earned him another weak smile and a head scratching.  
  
"It'll be okay, Tiger," the young man mumbled, voice as weak as his smile. "Maybe Uncle's found a way to fix me this time."  
  
 _'Who's 'Uncle'? Fix_ what _about you?'_ the tiger wanted to ask, part of him now beginning to get frustrated with going around and around something clearly important, but now wasn't the time to risk taking human shape again. There was a soft, audible _whump_ of changing air pressure, then his master got up to go open the doors of the dining hall.  
  
A heavily cloaked figure blew in with the snow. "Storm's getting worse," a voice muttered from somewhere in the furs, before the hood was pushed back to reveal a man who didn't really look _too_ much older than his master. Maybe forty summers at the most. But as Tiger warily edged closer, the prickly itch of magic grew strong enough that his fur puffed a little.  
  
Charms to mask one's age weren't illegal, or even all that uncommon. But in his experience, anyone who hid something so mundane usually had other, darker secrets to hide, and weren't to be trusted. Biting his tongue to keep from rumbling threateningly at the stranger as his master apologized profusely for calling him out in the bad weather, Tiger pressed protectively against his master's side.  
  
The motion caught the newcomer's attention, and Tiger really didn't like the look the man gave him. "Really, now, Barnaby," he said, tone cold and disapproving, and his master -'Barnaby'- flinched, suddenly looking less like the warrior who'd saved him from poachers and more like a child being scolded for bringing a frog in from the garden. He did growl a little at that, pressing closer, and 'Uncle' gave him another flat look before shaking his head. "We'll discuss it later. Let me have a look at you."  
  
Barnaby obediently tilted his head to bare his throat, and the man began examining the binding mark with gloved hands. "Hn. A week at best. This is another month you've lost, isn't it?"  
  
"Y- yes, sir," Barnaby said hesitantly. "I was hoping that maybe you-"  
  
"For now, all we can do is renew the wards," Uncle replied in a tone that brooked no argument.  
  
The faintly despairing look that crossed his master's face for the briefest moment at that made Tiger wish he had opted for his human form. His natural shape made for good protection, but wasn't the best thing for comforting when his master wasn't in a position to be curled around properly. He mouthed the young man's fingers in an attempt to get Barnaby's attention, but only got a light ear scratch in return.  
  
Uncle put a hand on his master's back, guiding him away from the doors as he pushed them closed. "The sooner we get it over with, the better you'll feel."  
  
"Yes, sir," Barnaby murmured again, pained resignation in his voice. Tiger trotted after them, hoping that now he would get some answers as to what was going on so he could help his master-  
  
-only for the old man to shut the door in his face as they left the hall.  
  
  
  
  
 _'Cold be damned,'_ he thought viciously, changing himself to human in order to rip the door open and not caring that he was bare as he stalked out. The change had taken long enough that the pair could have been just about anywhere in the castle, so he had to rely on his senses to follow the trail of power the old man left behind.  
  
Until he reached the stairs that lead up to one of the wings he hadn't yet explored.  
  
Then he only had to follow the sound of screaming.  
  
The shift back to tiger was much quicker, and four legs loaned him speed as he bolted up the stairs. Skidding to a halt in front of the right doorway, he lunged, only to recoil with a snarl of pain. The room was clouded in power so thick it physically _hurt_ , and in the middle of it all, his master was snared in the middle of a binding circle, head tossed back as he thrashed against the ward chains that snared him.  
  
Right where the scars were.  
  
Tiger felt his stomach drop into his toes at the sight. _This_ was what had created those marks? And the way they'd talked, his master had had to go through it more than once-  
  
The chains suddenly shattered like glass, tiny shards of light sinking viciously into the scars on the human's body before seeming to melt into his skin. Barnaby curled in on himself, resting his forehead on the floor and sobbing quietly from the pain as the circle faded back into dark marks scarred on the floor just like the chains had scarred themselves into his flesh.  
  
The tiger automatically took a step forward, wanting to go comfort his master, but before he could, the old man appeared, holding a cloth. Even with his sensitive ears pricked forward, he couldn't quite catch what was said, but there was no missing the note of possessiveness cloaked in comfort as the old man lifted Barnaby's head and began bathing away sweat and tears with the rag.  
  
"We've talked about this before, my boy. You can't be selfish when it comes to a matter so serious," the old main said more audibly, authoritative, demanding tone contrasting against his supposedly kind actions.  
  
"No, sir," Barnaby agreed meekly, bowing his head when he was released.  
  
"You know what you have to do."  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
The tiger paced uncomfortably back and forth by the door, keeping a close eye on his master and the old man to make sure no funny movements were made while Barnaby dressed. Then the blond came out into the hall and looked surprised -and... hurt?- to see him waiting there. "Oh, there you are," he said quietly. "Come on. We should probably go hunt."  
  
Tiger doubted that. His master looked like he'd been drained by whatever the hell the old man's magic had done to him. But Barnaby was already headed for the stairs, so he followed, and forced himself to wait patiently as the young man pulled on his hunting gear.  
  
The village was no less unnerving as they walked out. In fact, the darkness only seemed to make it worse, the shadows from his master's lantern seeming to create demonic shapes among the empty buildings.  
  
They'd just passed through the outer wall, when Tiger felt fingers brush his neck.  
  
Then the click and sudden loss of power as the collar slipped from around his throat.  
  
"I'm sorry, Tiger,"  
  
What th- He whirled around to see his master backing through the ward they'd walked through, collar in hand. Panic and anger surged up and he quickly destabilized himself to make it back through himself before it could close all the way and leave him stranded on the outside.  
  
Seeing red at the betrayal, he threw everything he had into shifting to human form as quickly as possible, ignoring the sharp sting of the snow and wind as he flung himself at the blond, pinning him back against a wall of the nearest house. The lantern fell in the scuffle and broke on a rock, sputtering once before it died and left them in nothing but darkness and weak moonlight.  
  
"You-"  
  
"What is _wrong_ with you?" he hissed, tightening his grip on the human. "We come _all this way_ and now-"  
  
"Have you _lost your mind_? You're going to _freeze!_ " the young man said in alarm at realizing his current shape was bare.  
  
"So? You were just going to abandon me out there, weren't you? What do you care now?"  
  
"It's not- There's another village not far east of here. You could have found shelter there-"  
  
"Tell me why," Tiger growled, pressing a clawed hand to the blond's throat.  
  
"You can't-"  
  
"You gave up the right to give me orders when you took the collar off," he snapped, his fingers clenching warningly until Barnaby made a gasp of pain. " _Tell me why!_ "  
  
His master's eyes were wide enough he could see the flicker of fear in them. He didn't want to scare his master like this. He didn't want to threaten his master like this. But he knew that nearly being left behind had to have been following the old man's cryptic order, and he wasn't taking it without _finally_ getting his _answers_.  
  
Barnaby bit his lip, then finally lowered his head in submission. "Back inside," he said quietly. "I'll tell you all of it, just... just not when you're risking yourself like this."  
  
Satisfied, both by the promise and the fact that his master's concern for him still lingered in some fashion, Tiger backed off and regained his normal shape, following the human back to the castle.  
  
  
  
  
They didn't cross paths with the old man once inside.  
  
 _Good._  
  
His master led him to one of the kitchens and began to build a fire. Tiger waited, but began to grow impatient the longer the human took. Worried that maybe the young man was stalling, he gave Barnaby a light, but demanding nip when his master passed again. Barnaby shook his head, then vanished into a store room.  
  
Tiger growled under his breath, reforming himself to human with the intent of giving the young man a piece of his mind again, only to be startled when a blanket suddenly draped around his shoulders.  
  
"I told you not to let yourself freeze," Barnaby said, the faintest hint of the old command in his voice as he sank into a chair. Now that he was aware Tiger even had a human shape, it seemed the change no longer bothered him. Interesting.  
  
But not what Tiger wanted to know. "Well?"  
  
Barnaby looked at his hands, then sighed. "Three days after I was born, I was cursed," he said quietly.  
  
"What was the curse?" Tiger asked, and the dead look in his master's eyes when Barnaby raised his head sent a little shiver down his spine.  
  
"The nastiest kind of luck aura. Those who got too close to me would die whenever it activated." He turned his head, looking into the fire. "From what I've been told, my parents were more interested in the scientific arts than the arcane, and sought to break it via their means. For two years, nothing at all dangerous happened. Then I caused my father's assassination."  
  
Tiger stared at him. "You... caused...?"  
  
"He'd taken me to a meeting with some of his advisors, when the curse aura activated in the middle of it. Everyone was so confused by the fact that their lord's son was suddenly glowing blue that no one noticed the man with the knife at first. And when they did, he was somehow able, with nothing but that, to fight his way through fifteen men armed to the teeth."  
  
"Is it possible someone might have been in on it?"  
  
"I don't know." The human stared into the fire, resting his chin on his hand. "I didn't get to go to the funeral. Everyone was afraid for my family... what I might have caused if I'd been there. Two days after, my mother summoned Uncle. He was the one who devised the wards to block the effects of the curse."  
  
His mouth dropped open. Those chains of light... All the screaming... "He started this when you were _two_?"  
  
"There wasn't any other way," Barnaby replied bitingly. "But... I remember hearing him and Mother fighting. I don't think he'd warned her in advance just how painful the wards would be."  
  
 _'Of course not,'_ Tiger thought darkly, his opinion of the old man not improving one tiny bit. "What happened after that?"  
  
"The wards held until I was seven." A faint look of pain crossed his master's face. "I was with my mother in her chambers when they failed the first time. As soon as I started glowing, the winter storm got worse. The wind shattered the windows, throwing the candles we'd been using to read against her dress and the bed."  
  
The burned hallway upstairs. Tiger had seen fires fueled by cloth and fur before, knew how fast they could explode. But for the flames to have swallowed that much before anyone could stop them... The assassination could possibly be explained away, but there would have _had_ to have been magic involved in the fire. Especially since...  
  
"One of the maids looked after me after that. My father had never been on good terms with the other branches of his family, and I guess everyone figured that with both my parents dead and none of my kin willing to take me, the curse was done. But Uncle renewed the wards anyway, just as a precaution. They held until I was eleven."  
  
The fire was starting to die a bit, so Barnaby got up to feed it a little more wood. "She didn't know how to teach me to hunt, but she was good with plants, so we were out studying. The glow led the wolves right to us," he said, shoving a piece into the fire with a little more force than necessary. "They didn't even touch me, even when I tried to beat them away. They went straight for her."  
  
"After that... it was clear that no one was truly safe. No one was willing to stay in a fortress where the only noble could kill them at any time just by _liking_ them too much. The exodus started, and even offering to leave myself didn't stop it. Everyone's moved on to other lords now."  
  
"And your own traveling?"  
  
"The quiet got to me. I told myself that as long as I could keep my distance and not get too attached to anyone, then it would be safe for me to go out and meet people. But there were still times that made me worry. A girl would flirt a little too closely, then be found dead on her route home the next morning. A man would offer me a room for free, and then robbers would come once everyone's lamps had been blown out. I could never be sure if it was just coincidence, or the curse trying to leak its way through the wards. Whenever I could feel them actually beginning to fail, I would return here to have them reconstructed."  
  
"Most people with that kind of life probably would have ended it by now," Tiger pointed out cautiously. The smile he got as a result made the hair at the back of his neck stand up, and he bit his lip as unnoticeably as possible, fighting back a shiver.  
  
"You don't think I _tried_? Except for the scars from the wards, nothing holds for long. Just like it guarded me from the fire and the wolves, the curse prevents me from causing myself any lasting harm, or from being killed by anyone else."  
  
He'd suspected as much after thinking more on the fire, but having it confirmed was still uncomfortable. And he still had one more question. "And me? Why did you buy me?"  
  
"I was selfish," his master admitted simply with a little shrug. "I had heard that animals with magic breeding in them were resistant to human magic. I thought maybe that would be my one chance to have someone around without constantly fearing for their life. But I was wrong. Those poachers came after you when the wards started to weaken, and my time between renewals continues to get shorter. Eventually, you'll be in as much danger as anyone else."  
  
Tiger bristled a little and he got up. "You don't _know_ that. Sure, some of the others might have been the work of the curse, but me getting caught was my own stupidity for not paying attention to my surroundings."  
  
"Tiger-"  
  
"You weren't glowing when you faced the poachers, were you?"  
  
"No," Barnaby admitted with some hesitation. "But I already told you-"  
  
Tiger growled and sharply bit the hand that reached up to push him away. He was not backing down on this, not even when his master's eyes narrowed at the retaliation. Using the distraction, he stole the collar away from where it hung on the human's belt and held it up in front of Barnaby's face before resolutely re-fastening it around his own neck.  
  
Barnaby stared at him. "What are you doing?"  
  
"No matter what reason you did it for, you treated me as a _companion_ , not a mere _pet_ ," he said fiercely. "You hunted for me, you were affectionate to me, and you protected me. That's more than any other human I have ever met has given me. So the only way you're getting rid of me now is to finish me off yourself, because collar or no collar, _I am not leaving_."  
  
His master wavered a little. "I can't let you-"  
  
"If I die, it's because of _my_ decision. Not because you _made_ me stay," Tiger replied, tone gentling as he leaned in to nose the young man's face and neck just as he would in his natural form. "But I'm taking my chances."  
  
"Reckless," Barnaby muttered disapprovingly, but long fingers threaded into the hair at the back of his neck, scratching gently above the collar. Tiger purred and nuzzled closer, relaxing only when his master put the other arm around his shoulders in a loose, accepting embrace.  
  
At least this issue had been resolved. But now he had a whole lot of new suspicions about the old man to puzzle over. Once his master went to sleep, he decided, he had a lot more investigating to do.  
  
  
  
  
He crept up the stairs as silently as possible, using his human shape now to blend in better with the surrounding. And besides, if he got caught, he could always claim he'd come looking for shelter... or something. He'd figure out a good lie later.  
  
The air still hung heavy with the prickle of magic when he reached the room where the binding had been done, and the old man was still in there when he cautiously poked his head in. Uncle stood at the work table in the corner, apparently busy with mixing something together. Tiger watched warily as the steaming liquid was poured around the circle burned into the floor, then made a small hiss of surprise when it started glowing a sickly green color. Something red replaced it, swirling up out of the floor into the glass the steaming stuff had come out of.  
  
It was hard to focus past the itching, but it smelled like... _blood_?  
  
Looking very pleased, the old man turned back to the table, and Tiger carefully snuck into the room to get a closer look. The blood had to be his master's, and while it made sense to take some if one was looking to cure a blood magic curse, Tiger couldn't shake a bad feeling about this. For starters, he was fairly sure his master didn't know blood was being taken from him during the bindings. Surely it would have gotten mentioned as a defense of the pain if he had.  
  
The blood was separated with a wave of the old man's hand into a series of small vials before they were collected into a bag. He was still smiling a lot for someone who'd evidently failed at keeping his promise of a cure so many times, Tiger thought.  
  
Uncle swept his heavy cloak off the back of a chair and put it on as he left the room, and Tiger kept as close on his heels as he could without being spotted. He couldn't help a little growl when he realized they were going in the direction of Barnaby's room, but he couldn't afford to let himself get caught this soon. So he kept himself hidden as the old man leaned over his sleeping master, petting ruffled gold hair.  
  
"You've been a great help, my boy," he murmured, low and sweet in a way that made Tiger's stomach clench uncomfortably in disgust. "I'll see you again soon."  
  
Swallowing back the sudden urge to bite the man _hard_ , Tiger continued to track him down through the castle. He went out the same doors he'd come in, and Tiger watched through one of the windows as he vanished back through the summoning circle. He wasn't sure what to make of the man's attitude towards his master, nor the fact that he hadn't even attempted to make sure that the binding wards were holding correctly. It made his earlier kindness in cleaning Barnaby up after the ritual seem even more... Tiger wasn't sure what the word he was looking for was. Fake? Controlling? Creepy? And 'a great help'... what in the nine hells was _that_ supposed to mean, when _he_ was the one who should be helping _Barnaby_?  
  
He scratched at the window ledge in frustration, leaving little claw marks in the stone, before turning back to his natural shape and going back up to his master's room.  
  
He had his master's answers now, but he also had even _more_ questions about what was actually being _done_ to him, and a very uncomfortable feeling that this was going to get a whole lot worse before it ever got any better.  
  
  
  
  
They went out hunting for real the next morning, and his master's silence on the fact that the old man was missing told him this disappearance was a common enough occurrence that the young man saw no reason to wonder about it. He doubted he'd be getting any new information if he asked where the old man went, so he kept his mouth shut on the matter for the time being.  
  
Despite the snowstorm the night before, they had good luck in the forests, returning with several rabbits and a deer lugged between them. Tiger didn't mind a simple roast and eat method, but with stores at his disposal, his master turned out to be a surprisingly decent cook, and Tiger was more than happy to gorge on the spiced meat before helping to bury the rest in the snow to preserve it. More snow was brought in and melted down for baths, and Barnaby gave him a good, comfortable brushing before bed.  
  
The next issue was clothing. His master could handle repair work, but he was no tailor, and nothing left behind in the castle fit Tiger's human form properly. So the young man took his measurements and let him choose what he liked from the storage, and they set off to a nearby village to have the clothes altered.  
  
"This is one of the places everyone fled to," Barnaby murmured softly as they passed through the gates, and Tiger subtly pressed closer to his master's side. No one seemed to recognize that the young man was their cursed once-lord, however - _'good thing for fading memories and local ghost stories,'_ Tiger thought- and their trip to the tailors was uneventful. His master even rewarded his good behavior during the boring alterations by purchasing some sweets he thought he'd been sneakily eyeing in the window of the shop next door.  
  
Allowed to wander the streets on his own once he had clothes to walk around human in, he found the a small bookshop and tried to struggle through some scientific texts his master's parents had apparently been famous for, before finally having to ask Barnaby for help.  
  
They'd ended up buying those to take home as well.  
  
Dragging a little sled loaded down with minor supplies and the clothes and books, they arrived back within the fortress' main wall just as the sun went down, and his master indulged him with a lesson over dinner.  
  
"Your script is very good," the human murmured, leaning over to get a better look at the notes he'd scribbled in the margins where allowed. "Especially since you're not in a shape to use it often."  
  
Tiger wasn't sure if that would be considered a backhanded compliment or not, but he perked up anyway. "Oh! I had a really good teacher,"  he said, launching into the story of his very first mate. Unlike him, Tomoe had been a pet through and through, owned by a very wealthy eastern family, with all the training and culture that came with it. Most humans quickly got bored of the story, but Barnaby just rested his chin on his hand with a faintly enigmatic smile, even asking questions here and there to show he was still listening.  
  
That became almost a habit of sorts, him telling stories about his past whenever he was in human shape and Barnaby genuinely showing interest. He'd found it a little weird at first, but really, it was kind of flattering, especially since his master probably could have told him to knock it off at any time if he'd gotten bored of them.  
  
Mostly, his master just seemed content to have him there at all, sort of like when they'd first started out. Once the desperation to stay had worn off, Barnaby had gotten a little awkward about him being touchy in his human shape, but Tiger had gradually won him over by keeping his behaviors identical in both forms. He'd even managed to earn a head scratching in human shape, purring deeply at the feel of fingers in his hair while he rested his head in his master's lap and the young man read.  
  
"Tiger, does it bother you?"  
  
"Hm?" he mumbled sleepily, raising his head from where he'd been snoozing against his master's hip.  
  
"That I still call you that. I never even asked you your original name, did I?"  
  
Tiger shrugged slightly and laid his head back down. "I don't have an _'original'_ , at least not in the way you're thinking of. We don't do that."  
  
"Not at all?"  
  
"Never need to. If there's more than one tiger about, we know each other by scent or markings. Names are things humans give us. And... to be kind of blunt... just being plain old Tiger is probably the best name I've gotten," he added, and the obvious distaste in his voice earned a laugh from the young man.  
  
"Some little old noblewoman named you Fluffy, didn't she?"  
  
"We're not going there," he muttered, a little more grouchily petulant than he'd intented to sound, and his master just chuckled, running fingers through his hair again as he returned to his reading. Once the human had dozed off, book still in hand, Tiger tugged the blankets up over him and pulled the book free to lay on the bedstand before heading out to do a little more hallway exploring.  
  
Even the drafty emptiness of the castle didn't bother him much anymore, and when it did, his master usually allowed him to make solo forays into the villages for new supplies and to talk to people.  
  
It wasn't perfect, but it was the best home he'd had in a very long time, and it was a life Tiger could certainly envision himself being happy with. But seeing the binding marks whenever Barnaby changed or bathed or slept reminded him of what was constantly hanging over their heads. And when, three nights after the new moon, the young man stumbled out of bed, gasping and in visible pain, Tiger knew their time was almost up again.  
  
  
  
  
Tiger kept himself hidden when the old man returned to the castle, partially to keep Barnaby from getting in any kind of dangerous trouble, and partially so he could better spy on everything. But it was quickly evident he wasn't going to learn anything knew just by watching while Uncle was in the castle. Without the minor shakeup his presence had caused, the binding went almost like a routine for the pair.  
  
If he wanted to get to find out the truth, it seemed, he was going to have to follow the bastard home. And the only way to do that was through the summoning portal. It was a really dangerous, and probably stupid, idea, but he couldn't think of anything else when the summoning portal was the sole path the old man used to come and go from the castle.  
  
He followed his master up to their shared room and kept watch over him until the exhausted young man fell into a deep sleep. Then Tiger shifted to his human form just long enough to scribble a quick note on a scrap and tuck it under his master's hand before heading downstairs and outside. He paced anxiously as he waited for the old man to come out, then ducked back into the shadows created by the remains of a dovecote to watch as the human vanished into the portal.  
  
Okay.  
  
Now or never.  
  
Taking a deep breath, Tiger streaked across the yard before closing his eyes and flinging himself into the glowing void.  
  
 _'Call me back through the summoning gate.'_  
  
  
  
  
When he weakly cracked his eyes open, everything hurt. And everything was upside down. At least he wasn't bound or caged, though. Groaning softly, Tiger rolled to his feet from where he'd been thrown, and tried not to retch when the movement made the entire cavern spin.  
  
Cavern?  
  
He curled himself into a ball and buried his face into his paws until everything stopped moving, then raised his head. Yep. Definitely a cave of some kind. He didn't seem to be very deep into it, though, as he could see light. Cautiously, he made his way out.  
  
The forest he found himself in was a whole lot warmer than the one he'd gotten used to hunting with his master in. The sudden change made his fur a little itchy, but since he hadn't thought to bring clothing, he'd just have to keep it for now, he decided. Instead he just shook himself to alleviate the feeling a little and set off, nose tracking the scent and tingle of the human's magic.  
  
Not knowing how humans here would react to a cat his size, he kept to the shadows where he could find them, especially once the trail led him into a small town.  
  
 _~Ooh, haven't seen one of your type in a long while.~_  
  
The voice out of nowhere made him start, fur puffing in surprise. Trying to smooth himself back into order, he looked up to find a window with a large birdcage that spanned the entire space of it.  
  
And in it was a big, pink, elaborately patterned bird.  
  
 _~Er, hello?~_ Tiger asked hesitantly. _~Was that you?~_  
  
The bird tilted his head to eye him. _~Wasn't the Queen of the Fell, was it?~_ the bird asked, chuckling at his own joke. _~What brings a cat such as yourself by?~_  
  
 _~Well...~_ It was very hard not to get distracted when feathers _flashed_ in the sunlight with every movement. _~You're very..._ pink. _I've never seen a bird shifter that color,~_ he said instead, still a little on the stunned side.  
  
 _~Hmph. I'll have you know it's a very distinguished and elegant color,~_ the bird informed him sourly, sticking his beak in the air. Embarrassed at the offense he'd caused, Tiger was about to apologize, when there was a twittering little giggle and a much smaller green and gold head poked out from under the pink bird's wing.  
  
 _~Don't mind my big sis,~_ the smaller bird said, giggling again. _~He's just fluffed because the little miss wants to turn him blue.~_  
  
 _~A very nice girl most of the time, but she has_ no _taste at all,~_ the pink bird groused, and the mention of owners finally shook Tiger out of his confusing-bird-and-possible-head-injury stupor, and he cut in before a clearly old rant could be renewed.  
  
 _~Oh! A-actually, to answer your earlier question, I'm here looking for someone.~_  
  
The two listened intently as he gave the description, but even through the window, he could almost feel the air becoming more and more sour and uncomfortable around them by the time he'd finished.  
  
 _~Honey, you don't want to fool with_ that _one,~_ the pink bird said with a shake of his head. _~Nasty, nasty piece of work, he is.~_  
  
 _~He's the reason the master never came home and the mistress and little miss own us now,~_ the green and gold bird agreed. _~The master challenged him over... what was it?~_ she asked the bigger bird.  
  
 _~Something about property laws... I think the master believed he was illegally amassing territory or something along those lines. I don't quite remember all the details,~_ he said, tapping a beak with his wing in thought.  
  
 _~I'm sorry, but the fact that he's bad is actually why I'm here,~_ Tiger said, shifting anxiously from leg to leg. He'd gone through the portal on suspicion, of course, but having someone confirm that _yes_ , the old man was not to be trusted and he _wasn't_ just being paranoid made him all the more antsy and determined to protect Barnaby from the bastard. _~I'm sure he's doing something to hurt my master under the guise of curing a curse, but I don't know what or why. I have to find his home so I can look for clues.~_  
  
The two birds glanced at each other, then at him, then put their heads together and covered their faces with their wings in a whispered conversation he couldn't hear. After several minutes of uncomfortable waiting, they seemed to come to a decision and turned back to him. _~We'll show you the way,~_ the pink bird said.  
  
 _~But once we get within sight of it, you're on your own, got it?~_  
  
Tiger nodded, and the pair hopped down off their perches and out of view, before they appeared at the front door, squirming through the opening for package delivery. _~This way,~_ the little green bird sang, and Tiger loped off after them as they flew west.  
  
  
  
  
They had traveled the entire night and most of the day, and Tiger was beginning to wonder if the birds really _did_ know where they were going, when he smacked face-first into seemingly empty air. Staggering back, he shook his head to clear it and pawed at his smarting nose with an annoyed growl. Stuff hitting him in the face was really starting to get old, he thought. Then he looked up and stared as the 'air' rippled to reveal massive briar thickets stretching as far as he could see in either direction and choking the trees that had lined the path. _~What th-~_  
  
 _~We tried to warn you, but you didn't hear us,~_ the green bird said as she fluttered down to perch delicately on his head.  
  
The pink bird settled himself on a nearby branch and gestured towards the thorns with a wing. _~This is how he controls who goes in and out of his territory. It can't be flown over or cut through, and he only opens passages to those who pay.~  
  
~How is that not illegal by realm laws?~  
  
~It's only illegal if the land isn't his. No one's challenged him on ownership rights after what happened to our master last winter.~_  
  
Tiger scowled and pawed at the branches and vines, hissing a little when they tried to constrict around his paw. He glared at them, tail lashing in thought, then got an idea. Carefully destabilizing a paw, he pushed the wisps through the thorns. No reaction. He grinned to himself and backed up.  
  
The pink bird beckoned the green bird away when he figured out what he was going to do. _~We'll wait for you until morning comes again, and no longer.~_  
  
 _~Be careful,~_ the green bird said, giving him a gentle, concerned peck on the ear before rejoining her cage partner. _~Don't get caught.~  
  
~I won't,~_ Tiger promised, then converted himself fully to slip through the briars.  
  
The going was arduous and painful. Having to keep himself in this state for so long taxed both his concentration and his strength, but he couldn't afford to stop. Even going solid for a breath would get him speared in at least a dozen directions, and it was a sucker bet that that'd kill even him.  
  
  
  
  
After what seemed like an eternity, he spilled through the last openings of the thorny branches, reforming automatically as he collapsed to the ground in a gasping heap.  
  
 _Damn._  
  
Now he was kind of hoping he'd run into the old man after all, just so he could _bite_ the bastard for coming up with traps like this.  
  
When he'd managed to catch his second wind, he shook himself and got up, sneaking deeper into the estate grounds. The house he found was weirdly small for such a huge piece of territory. Almost nondescript enough that he dismissed it. But there was no mistaking the feeling of his fur standing on end from the power that permeated the air around it. This _had_ to be the place.  
  
The fading sunlight gave him plenty of shadows for cover as he prowled closer to the building, and he was mildly surprised to find no more traps waiting for him on the grounds. Maybe the old man expected the briars and his apparent reputation to keep people out.  
  
Rearing up on his hind paws, he peered through a window to see two human males cleaning. Both looked younger than his master, a redhead and a blond. And around their necks were binding marks that he knew much better than those his master had. Standard blood-bound servants, then. He wasn't entirely surprised to see the old man would keep that sort. It was going to make them harder to get past, though.  
  
Then again, the blond one looked pretty jittery. Maybe that could be of some help. Tiger dropped back down, ducking into the shadows as the redhead came out with a bucket of something or another to dump into the fire pit, then slipped in behind his back.  
  
The blond froze, wide-eyed, at the sight of him, and Tiger pounced. He dragged the kid into another hallway, then quickly turned human to pin him down before he could yell for help. "You're going to show me where the master keeps his work."  
  
"I- I can't do that!" the human protested, then quailed when Tiger growled at him, making sure the light flashed off very sharp teeth. " _I can't_ ," he insisted a second time, though with much less fervor. "I-If he finds out I let someone in-"  
  
"Do you ever leave?"  
  
"What?" the kid asked, thrown off by the question.  
  
"You don't stay in the house all the time, do you?"  
  
"W-well, no... We were- um, we were supposed to go-"  
  
"Then as far as he'll ever know, I got in while you were out."  
  
"But the wards-"  
  
"I got through the thorn wall, didn't I?" The human still looked unsure, and Tiger didn't have time for this. The other one could come back any second, and he doubted the redhead would be as much of a pushover. "Help me, and when I stop whatever he's doing to my master, we'll come back and break your ward collars."  
  
Bluish eyes went wide. "You would- But how do I know you mean it?"  
  
Tiger bit into his own wrist hard enough to draw blood, and held it out. The kid didn't accept, but it was clear that even being offered a binding promise was enough to make up his mind. He motioned for Tiger to be quiet, and pointed towards a plain-looking door on the left, and Tiger let him up to lead the way, heedless of his own bare state as he followed.  
  
It quickly became evident why the house was so boring on the outside: everything interesting was spread out underground instead. Pretty clever, he had to admit. "What's trapped?"  
  
"O-only the books. We have to be able to clean everything else, but the master caught Edward trying to read one of his ward records two months ago, and...well..."  
  
Tiger could imagine how well that went over. But that definitely gave him a place to start looking as well. Putting his heightened sense of smell to work, he gave each shelf a careful going over, then paused when he came to the third on the right.  
  
A row of unobtrusive-looking brown leather journals on a shelf near the floor smelled like blood.  
  
 _His master's_ blood.  
  
He wasn't about to risk whatever was going to come out of those books in his human shape, so he shifted back to natural form and sank his teeth in to yank one of the journals out. Some sort of bluish-green smoke erupted out, burning his muzzle and tongue and nose. He snarled and sneezed, shaking the book hard to break whatever was in it that had sprung the trap, but his face still hurt like hell when the colors and the grossly-sweet odor finally dissipated. Spitting the nasty book onto the floor, he scrubbed at the burning feeling with his paw before changing back to human.  
  
"Are you all right?" the human asked anxiously.  
  
"Nothing that won't heal," he muttered as he rubbed his eyes with the heel of his hand, then flipped the book open to make sure the smoke hadn't damaged any of his evidence. Despite the burning in his nose, the blood smell was even stronger with the pages open. This had to be something useful. He couldn't read the language used for the notes, but maybe the birds or his master could translate it. He eyed the row of books again. As much as he wanted to take them all, _one_ book missing was easier to hide than an entire _row_. He'd have to find something else to take along as evidence as well.  
  
He found some a couple of the little vials the old man had used to store his master's blood and managed to convince his new not-quite-friend to tie them to the book while he kept looking. He found a few more blood-scented little objects to add to the bundle, then on one of the workbenches in the corner, he came across- "Are these movement talismans? They look strange."  
  
"Oh, um, the master altered them. He uses them like little transport gates instead of just for speed."  
  
 _Well.  
  
That_ would certainly make getting back past the briars a whole lot easier. "Would he miss one?"  
  
"They break after three uses, so he makes and goes through a lot of them," the kid said hesitantly. It wasn't really a yes or a no, but Tiger wasn't in a mood to quibble. If his master hadn't woken already, he would soon, and he needed to get back to the summoning gate. He delicately took one off the rack and slipped it around his neck before picking up his prizes. Then the human caught him by the arm.  
  
"Remember. Y-you promised."  
  
Tiger tilted his head slightly in acknowledgment. "I promised," he agreed. "It might take awhile, but we'll be back."  
  
  
  
  
It was mostly by luck that he actually ended up in the correct spot on the other side of the briars, and in the darkness, he still wasn't sure until he heard the ruffling of feathers.  
  
 _~That was impressively fast,~_ the pink bird said when Tiger brandished his finds.  
  
 _~I managed to grab a guide, sort of,~_ Tiger said.  
  
 _~And something shiny,~_ the green bird noted, landing to cling to fur of his ruff so she could peck at the talisman. _~What is this?~_  
  
 _~This is how the old man cheats his travel distances,~_ Tiger replied, letting her pull it over his head so the pink bird could inspect it. _~It's like a miniature gate that allows for short-distance jumps.~  
  
~So it wouldn't get you back to your fortress, but it might save us all the journey back to town?~_ the pink bird asked shrewdly, and Tiger grinned.  
  
 _~You read my mind.~_  
  
  
  
  
They arrived just as the sun was coming up, and once the pair had convinced their 'little miss' -a pretty young lady with long, honey-colored hair and a slightly huffy attitude about being woken up at the crack of dawn- to leave some food by the shed in the family's back yard, Tiger and the birds knuckled down to work. _~Hmph,~_ the pink bird muttered after they had been at it for almost an hour.  
  
 _~What?~_ Tiger asked, raising his eyes to look at the bird as he fluffed in annoyance on his head.  
 _  
~No wonder we couldn't decipher this.~_ Mindful of little talons, the pink bird slid down off his head via his muzzle and the green bird scooted over from her perch to give her cagemate room. _~Look here and here,~_ he said, indicating with his wing. _~These patterns come from entirely separate runic languages.~  
  
~So he's double encrypting?~  
  
~Or mixing different types of blood magic. Or _ both _.~  
  
~Hey, what about this diagram here? Doesn't this part mean something about food?~_ the green bird asked, pointing to a picture with her claw, and the pink bird leaned over to look.  
  
 _~Mm... it's definitely something about consumption. As best as I can translate it without knowing both rune languages, it looks like... some sort of refinement ward, perhaps. He's turning the blood into something that's more useful when consumed.~  
  
~It can't be for my master, though,~ _ Tiger said with a concerned frown as he tilted his head to get a better view of the picture in question. _~The old man never gives him anything to eat or drink, it's always the other way around. All he ever does when he comes is make new binding wards, clean up, and leave.~_  
  
Both birds looked a little worried at that as well. _~I'm afraid that's all I can tell you,~_ the pink bird said apologetically.  
  
Tiger shook his head. _~It gives me more to go on than I had,~_ he said as the birds closed the book and tied everything back together for him. _~Now I just have to get it to my master.~  
  
~Good luck! Come back and visit!~_ both birds sang as he activated the talisman for the third time.  
  
  
  
  
When he opened his eyes in the cave again, Tiger looked down to find that the talisman had crumbled to useless dust on the ground. The kid had been right about the three uses rule. Well, it didn't exactly matter now. The summoning gate was already glowing, and he'd best not wait around.  Making sure his evidence was secure, he took a deep breath and jumped through.  
  
The trip was much easier this time, possibly because he was the only one going through. Lying sprawled back in the familiar courtyard, he looked up to find his master watching him in concern. "What in the six realms did you do to yourself?" Barnaby asked, crouching down to look at the burns on his face, and Tiger shifted over to human before thrusting the book and objects at the blond.  
  
"That's not important right now. Your uncle's not helping you at all like he keeps claiming. He's _using_ you-"  
  
Green eyes narrowed, then the human straightened. "That's it? You cause me to worry all morning just to bring some baseless accusation-"  
  
"It's not _baseless_!" Tiger snapped, automatically getting up to grab his master by the arm.  
  
But when Barnaby's expression only grew colder, he quickly realized what he was doing and backed off. Levying charges of treachery against trusted family wasn't the same as pleading his case to be allowed to stay, and he couldn't act in the same manner now. If he didn't tread very, very carefully, his master was never going to believe him. So he took a step back and knelt down to collect his evidence, making sure to keep his head low.  
  
"Please," he said quietly. "I know how important he is to you. But do you really think all this would be for a _lark_ , or... or _petty jealousy?_ "  
  
There was no answer for what seemed like a long time, then a hand brushed down over his hair before fingertips lifted his chin in a gesture similar to when they'd first met. When he dared raise his eyes, his master was scrutinizing the burns across his face again. Then the human's expression finally softened and he took off his cloak to wrap around Tiger. "No, I don't. You've earned more trust than that. Let me look at your injuries, then show me what you've found."  
  
Relief washed over him in a heated wave, and he nodded, getting up to follow.  
  
  
  
  
His master, as always, was almost delicately precise in treating wounds, and even the uncomfortable pull of burned skin or the stinging smell of the remedies used didn't keep Tiger from nosing the human's hands. But there was still an uncomfortable tension in the air, and it didn't lessen when he handed over the book and vials and other objects.  
  
He decided it might be best to leave Barnaby alone while he studied, and went to keep himself busy with other things. His master was still buried in his research when dinner time came, so Tiger left a bowl of second-warmed stew and some bread before curling up beside the door to sleep.  
  
The food was still untouched when he woke in the morning, and Barnaby clearly hadn't slept at all, muttering quietly to himself as he poured over books and scowled at diagrams, apparently tireless as he dug into his uncle's encryptions.  
  
Settling himself more comfortably to keep watch, Tiger found himself wondering if this had been what his master's parents had been like as well. Their books were certainly complex enough. In a way, it was kind of amusingly endearing to see that the dedication to research was apparently hereditary... and more than a little sad as well. They probably would have gotten on well in the study rooms together if the pair had survived- Shaking his head, Tiger cast off the melancholy thought and rested his chin on his paws as his master continued to dig through scrolls and notes.  
  
The sunlight had again been exchanged for candles and he was beginning to doze a bit when a sudden thump roused him, and he raised his head to find his master sitting slumped in his chair, one hand on the closed journal and the other covering his eyes. "Tiger. Come here."  
  
Barnaby sounded exhausted, but there was something else in his voice, a different sort of tiredness that Tiger couldn't put a specific description to, and it concerned him. He got up from his observation spot and padded over, then made a surprised _whuff_ when the human moved, suddenly kneeling down to hug him just a little too tightly.  
  
His master was shaking, he realized when fingers wound into his fur, and he could feel a wetness from where the blond's face was buried against his neck. It seemed his suspicions had still fallen short of whatever his master had discovered. Worried, he purred and nosed Barnaby comfortingly, licking his face when the human finally pulled away. It earned a chuckle, like always, but the noise was weak and hollow.  
  
"I apologize for not believing you, Tiger," his master murmured, rubbing his ears, then reached up to retrieve his translation notes. "I... I think I need to lie down for awhile. But this should be easier for you to read."  
  
He took the scroll, trying not to let his mouth get it too wet, but stayed pressed close to his master's side to help him to their shared bedroom. Barnaby quietly shed his clothing and curled up under the heavy blankets and furs, not even bothering to put on sleep clothes, and Tiger protectively curled around him until the trembling finally faded into an uneasy sleep. Only then did he shift form and reach out and grab some flint out of one of the little boxes on the bed table to light a small lamp so that he could see what new dark secrets his master had uncovered.  
  
  
  
  
There were certain things that blood magic had never been able to achieve.  
  
Resurrecting life, for one. Oh, sure, you could create an _un_ dead army for yourself if you _really_ wanted, but most of the time, mindless shuffling hordes that were _ridiculously_ easy to re-kill weren't worth the effort and study and magic drain it took to make them.  
  
Immortality was another. Tiger knew a lot more about that one, as many shifters had been casualties, either as experiment subjects or as parts. There'd been a few small successes, a mage here and there who'd managed to extend their lifespan by a decade or so, but trying for true immortality tended to have a _lot_ of nasty side effects, both intentional and non. Unlike raising the dead, however, the drawbacks never really stopped people from seeking out that one elusive method to succeed.  
  
But from what his master had been able to translate in the incomplete records, it looked like 'Uncle' had found a loophole that had gotten him closer than most. By effectively laying all the groundwork on a brand new life, he'd created a sort of semi-immortal whose blood could be be refined into a longevity formula for himself. All of the benefits, none of the backlash, so long as he had his source to draw from.  
  
Tiger had to admit that, in a twisted, disgusting way, it was kind a brilliant groundbreaking in that particular field. After all, how many people would have considered casting any form of immortality on someone _else_ to get around the drawbacks? It took a very particular sort of selfishness and cunning, one most seeking the gift wouldn't have had.  
  
It made the old man that much more reprehensible and dangerous, really.  
  
Tiger had let himself fade back to normal by the time morning came, and when his master roused, he nosed the human in worry. Barnaby ruffled him gently between the ears, but said nothing, merely getting up to dress.  
  
There was something he didn't like about that. There were still little tics about his master's personality that confused him, but this was different from those. He was being entirely too calm after what they'd found. There was a coldness in the air around the human that hadn't been there before and it made Tiger's tail twitch anxiously. He slid down off the bed and followed.  
  
The silence and chill continued to hang in the air as the human put out food for him and cleaned clothing, and by midday, Tiger couldn't take it anymore.  
  
As his master looked after their weaponry, he bit the man's sword arm sharply. A hand pushed at his muzzle, but it was more a dismissive gesture than anything, and Tiger growled and sank his teeth in hard enough to make the metal gauntlet crinkle a little before pulling roughly. The motion unbalanced his master enough that the human had to dig his heels in to keep from ending up on his face, and this time, the look of irritation he shot Tiger before trying to shove him off was genuine.  
  
He let go, but only to lunge forward in an attempted pin, and the fight was on. He had weight and supernatural brute strength on his side, but was limited by how much gripping ability his natural form had. And though he'd seen his master in a fight before, knew he was agile and wiry and quick, Barnaby was still surprisingly hard to hold on to, squirming free repeatedly.  
  
Tiger resorted to relying on his human form and better endurance, finally wearing his master down until the human couldn't wriggle out of being pinned his stomach on the floor. They were both gasping, teeth and claws had ruined his master's clothes, and he could feel the tremors in the body beneath him. He eased his hold enough to lean up and nosed into the short hair at the back of his master's neck, soothingly licking at sweat dampened skin. "Talk to me, master," he murmured, putting as much of a comforting purr into it as possible. There had been a point besides venting frustration to all this, after all, and now that Barnaby couldn't just avoid him or ignore him, he wasn't going to let it go.  
  
Barnaby shuddered, then closed his eyes and went limp with a low sigh. "It isn't _fair_ , Tiger. They _loved_ him."  
  
That wasn't the response he'd expected. "They who?" he prompted.  
  
"My parents." Gloved fingers dug into the stone beneath them, and this time he let the human sit up now that he was sure Barnaby wouldn't just get up and leave. He wrapped his arms around him though, one about the shoulders and one about the waist, though, just in case. "He was _family_ to them, Tiger. I remember Mother telling me he had been Father's second at the wedding, and even though they fought after the first time I was warded, she still trusted him implicitly to do what was best. And yet he had... he was..."  
  
His master didn't need to finish that sentence. Tiger could well guess. The dates on some of the notes in that one book were a good five years older than he'd guessed Barnaby to be. The old man had been smiling and joining in the wedding preparations while planning to use his dear friends' firstborn as a conduit all along. He'd probably even known from the beginning that they would be killed by the curses he'd laid no matter what they did to try and solve the problem.  
  
Mindful of his claws, he moved the arm that had been around Barnaby's waist and carefully kneaded the fingertips of his now free hand into his master's back.  
  
"I don't know what to think about what he's done to me yet. I don't think I can even start to find my feelings on that until I've studied the full extent of it."  
  
"But-?" Tiger asked, and a shiver went down his spine as the temperature of the room suddenly seemed to drop several degrees.  
  
"I _hate_ him for the way he betrayed Mother and Father."  
  
He couldn't see his master's face in their position, and that made him uneasy. Carefully, he shifted their bodies until they were facing each other and the blond was almost in his lap, not minding the awkwardness of metal against his bare skin. Tiger brushed Barnaby's hair back out of his face and nosed at him tenderly, purring reassuringly until his master finally looked _at_ him rather than _through_ him, and the cold tension eased a bit. "We could always take our grievances to him for airing," he said, not entirely joking and not entirely serious. "It would be like an extended hunting trip."  
  
"Tempting," Barnaby murmured with a weak, sad attempt to smile at the implied jest. "But no. We have no idea what sort of wards he might have laid in the event of my arrival. Best to prepare to confront him when his timer on the wards goes off again. At least then we'll be fighting in familiar territory."  
  
Tiger nodded, then blinked. "Wait, what do you mean by timers?"  
  
"That wasn't in my notes?" When Tiger shook his head, his master sighed and rubbed his eyes, apparently annoyed with himself for forgetting to write that down. "He deactivated the summoning wards in the gate. It's just a portal, nothing more." He looked down at the floor uncomfortably. "He doesn't need me to call him because he already knows when the bindings will start to fail."  
  
"Oh."  
  
Barnaby raised his head and eyed him. "You had no idea he wasn't going to show when you left me that note to use the gate, did you?"  
  
"Um." To be honest... he actually hadn't even given it that much thought. Getting there had been desperation to find proof, and getting back had been desperation to get away before any evidence he'd been in the man's house could be found. "It wasn't my best plan, okay?" he finally admitted with an embarrassed little huff when his master kept giving him that measuring look.  
  
"Reckless," Barnaby muttered for the second time since they'd met, but there was more of a fond exasperation in it than before. He gently scratched the back of Tiger's neck before pushing him away and getting to his feet, careful to not let what metal he was wearing harm Tiger in the process. "Come on. There's more research to be done, and I'll need extra hands."  
  
Tiger nodded, but once they were up, he pulled his master towards the kitchens instead. "Food first. You haven't eaten at least since I got back," he said when the human looked like he would protest. Barnaby subsided and let him fuss with only a small noise of annoyance. That was good enough for him, and he herded his master off to eat.  
  
  
  
  
They had been burning the midnight oil for several nights in a row when Tiger finally dozed off during yet another research session. He honestly didn't know where his master got the stamina to stay awake so long. Sure, he could go for long periods of hunting or fighting, but straining away one's brain and eyesight in books and scrolls was another matter.  
  
Cracking open an eye, he found that he'd been sleeping long enough that the candles had been replaced again, and his master was staring into the flickering flames with an unreadable expression. Tiger slid down off his comfortable perch and padded over to butt his head against a dangling hand, and his master obligingly gave him a scratch around the ears and under the chin. When he opened his eyes, however, Barnaby was giving him that strange, uncomfortable look again.  
  
"Tiger... it's a very high possibility that even if we win, this is going to end with the curses becoming permanent, at least until we can find a new way to bind them. If you're not immune-"  
  
Knowing exactly where this was going, the big cat gave a soft little growl and nipped the human's hand, just hard enough to be a warning not to finish that sentence.  
  
"Tiger."  
  
He nipped harder to make damn sure that the point couldn't be missed.  
  
They stared each other down, then Barnaby looked away first after a long minute. "Fine, you stubborn old thing," he said. "I know when I'm beat."  
  
To ease the sting of the argument, Tiger nuzzled against his master's hip before resting a big head in his lap, and was rewarded with fingertips rubbing gently along the bridge of his nose. He purred at the delightfully tingly feeling that sent rippling down his back, earning an amused smile from the human. It occurred to him at that moment that, if this didn't blow up in their faces spectacularly, they would have a very long time to themselves for little things like this. As terrible as they were, the curses' effects also meant that his master would be as long-lived as the oldest shifters.  
  
He'd never actually wanted to remain by a human's side before, and had never really given it much thought, even during the quiet month they'd had. But now that he _was_ thinking about it... He'd had so many terrible owners in his lifetime, and escape or endurance had been the order of the day. But in the times between the old man's interference, Barnaby had been very different from all of them, and indeed most humans he'd met period. Tiger had been loved and petted and treated with respect. Never in his life had Tiger had another master who actually listened to him when they argued. There were so many possibilities for a promising future, if-  
  
A deep rumble made them both look up, and Tiger backed off to let his master go close the windows against the rising storm.  
  
The thunder reminded him that they weren't nearly out of this mess yet. Tiger had seen for himself in the briars what sort of power the old man could summon, and they had no idea what he could do to Barnaby's wards even without the binding circle. All they could do was hope they would be able to fight whatever the bastard had up his sleeves.  
  
Padding over to a window, he laid his ears flat and growled at the approaching clouds quietly enough that his master didn't hear. As an omen of possible things to come, he really could have done without them.  
  
  
  
  
It was while watching Barnaby pour intently over the weaponry he'd constructed and how to ward them that Tiger got an actually very good idea and quietly slipped away from the forge. Blood magic against blood magic was all well and fine, but his master would be going up against someone much more versed in it than he was, and much more powerful to boot. Them being on home territory and the fact that the old man needed his master alive were both good advantages, but Barnaby was going to need all the ward protection he could get.  
  
Tiger paced around the fortress yards until he found a rock big enough that would suffice, then set to gnawing on it roughly. He didn't feel pain when one of the big fangs finally cracked off, just an unpleasant little shock of the fur along his spine standing on end. He'd gotten what he needed, though.  
  
He returned to the forge and pawed his master until the blond looked down, then spat the tooth into a leather-gloved hand. At Barnaby's perplexed expression, Tiger shifted over to human, settling himself as close to the fires as he could get without fear of being burned. "We can still be killed by them, but shifters are a little more resistant against combat wards in our natural forms," he explained. "I don't have any teeth big enough for a sword or a shield, but I thought maybe that would help with warding a knife at least."  
  
"But what about your mouth? Won't you need it?"  
  
"I'll have a new one in a couple of days, so don't mind me."  
  
"Hm." Barnaby eyed the tooth intently, studying it, and Tiger could practically see the wheels turning in his head. "The shape of it couldn't be fitted properly into any of the ones I've already made, but... hm," the human murmured, mostly to himself. Tiger tried very hard not to squirm, the anticipation of whether or not his gift would be useful eating him. After a few more minutes, his master began muttering again. "Maybe if- _Hm_... Analyze the magical properties, build the wards from scratch right into a new blade around it- then- yes. _Yes._ This is _perfect_!"  
  
Tiger beamed at the praise and the affectionate hair ruffle that accompanied it, then changed back to his natural forms so he could weigh down the bellows when directed. He sometimes wondered how the hell his master had ever managed to craft weapons on his own when the bellows was clearly a two-man -or one particularly big cat- job, but that thought quickly got chased away by a flurry of sparks as Barnaby shoved more wood into the fire and picked out a crucible.  
  
They still had so much work to do.  
  
  
  
  
When it came down to the delicate work of finishing the blade and engraving in the specially-designed wards, his master had shooed him out of the forge to go eat. Tiger took the opportunity to shift and dress and put some of his newly-taught cooking skills to work, bringing back dinner for them both.  
  
The pink light of his master's blood magic was just fading when he cautiously poked his head in. "Everything okay in here?"  
  
Bathed in sweat and clearly drained, Barnaby was still smiling when he looked back over his shoulder. "Come see."  
  
Tiger laid the tray on a workbench and came to peer around his master. The finished knife lay on the engraving table in front of them. The tooth had been embedded into the guard, with one of its curves forming the thumb rise. A thin cage of metal surrounded it to keep it in place, and the edges of the wires had been faded into the blade itself to make them sturdier in the design. Tiny, precise runes lined the spine all the way down the trailing point. Sturdy leather wrapped the hilt snugly, and more runes had been etched into the pommel and rear quillon as further precaution, circling a small pink enhancement gem.  
  
"It's beautiful," Tiger murmured, a tiny bit awed. He couldn't really explain why, but it gave him a warm little feeling of pleasure in the pit of his stomach that his master had created such a lethally fine design based around one of _his_ fangs.  
  
"With any luck, it will make a good ward breaker," Barnaby said tiredly. "I just hope having to construct the rune pattern from the ground up doesn't backfire on me."  
  
"It won't," Tiger said, nuzzling his master's neck. "You put so much work into it, so it'll be perfect."  
  
"Flatterer," Barnaby chided, but gave him one of those delicious little rubs against his nose with a fingertip, then allowed Tiger to pull him away from the engraving table to dinner.  
  
  
  
  
The moon hadn't even finished its next cycle when Tiger was roused by the now bitterly-familiar jolt of his master stumbling from bed in a gasping, cold sweat. He quickly lunged from bed to intercept the human, putting his big fluffy body in between Barnaby and the door before the blond could flee. Barnaby stumbled against him blindly before collapsing to his knees, and Tiger pressed in close, not minding even when fingers pulled roughly at his fur as his master clutched at him, shaking.  
  
Barnaby made a weak rasping noise, clinging tighter, and Tiger licked at the hated glow around his throat, ignoring the way it stung his tongue. They stayed that way until the light finally faded, then Tiger nosed his master to his feet and helped him to bed.  
  
Neither of them slept that night, the big cat curled defensively around the human and the human nervously running fingers through the cat's fur. They could both feel the curse already pulsing behind the binding marks, and if the ever-shortening pattern of time held consistent, that meant there would only be two more days before the old man came. It wouldn't be enough time to lay any more shielding wards or build any more weapons. They could still manage some combat practice, but he had a feeling that neither of them were going to be mentally up for it.  
  
Time was up.  
  
What they'd accomplished already would have to be enough.  
  
  
  
  
Tiger hid himself in a guard niche of the warding room, ears pricked forward and straining to hear the conversation between his master and the old man as they approached. His master had decided to stress the need for a cure harder than he ever would have normally, as they were both sure that pushing that particular button would be the best way to annoy the old bastard enough to make him show his colors.  
  
Seemed to be working, too, judging by the way what he could make out was getting more heated. He jumped a little when the door suddenly slammed open and the two humans entered, expressions dark. "Just get it over with," Barnaby said, both spiteful and resigned, and Tiger bit his tongue nervously, unsure whether this was part of their act still or if the old man had won the battle of wills as he'd tended to do so easily in the past.  
  
He got his answer when, behind his master's back, 'Uncle's' eyes narrowed, and a small whiteish ball of what looked like visible air collected in his hand. Every nerve in his body went on protective alert, and when the old man reached out with the clear intent of making contact with the scar ringing Barnaby's throat, Tiger lunged from his hiding place with a snarl. The angle didn't give him a chance to crush bone, but the slice of flesh and scream of pain were worth it themselves, even when they were followed by a searing blast that threw him back against the wall. He shook his head to clear it, but all he saw was a bright blue flash before something was in the way, blocking the attack from reaching its mark.  
  
He didn't remember his master hiding a shield in the room before, but oh, glories, he wasn't complaining now.  
  
"-I should have suspected something was amiss when you brought the mangy creature home in the first place," the old man was saying when Tiger's ears stopped ringing, and his master straightened, shield still braced at the ready.  
  
"Don't sound so wounded, _sir_ ," Barnaby said, throwing all of that cold anger and hurt that Tiger had seen in him before into the previous term of respect. "There's hardly any loyalty lost on your side. I just needed Tiger's help to finally see how _little_ there was from the very beginning."  
  
The third blast broke through the shield, throwing them both into the brick. Despite the pain, they glanced at each other, silently agreeing their chances were better without being a united target, and split up to attack from different angles. Tiger focused his efforts into forcing the old man to shield himself. He attacked every bubble with teeth and claws and his full weight behind them, while Barnaby tried to use his speed to draw all the offensive fire to himself.  
  
It _seemed_ to have been working, wearing their hated opponent down, until Barnaby screamed in agony and Tiger realized too late that the the old man had still somehow managed to guide the fight in a specific direction. The binding circle lit up malevolently and the blood-drawing chains lashed into his master's skin. Tiger snarled and leaped again, only for a protection spell backlash to send him skidding painfully across the floor.  
  
" _Stupid_ boy," the old man said with a cold smile, the chain around Barnaby's neck attached to his hand. "This could have been so much easier on you. But I only need you _alive_ ; it doesn't matter whether you're _willing_."  
  
That creepy little ball of air appeared again, and the chain tightened as the old man approached. Not a chance he was going to let the old man get close enough to use whatever in the nine hells that spell was for. Tiger hissed and heaved himself to his feet, but before he could lunge, there was a sharp ringing noise.  
  
When he'd managed to blink away the lights in his eyes that had come with it, the chains had shattered like before, but instead of the shards attaching themselves, they merely flared brighter for a brief moment before vanishing.  
  
And the ward-breaking knife was glowing brightly in his master's hand.  
  
Tiger felt a little ripple of vicious glee through his whole body at the shocked look on the old man's face. The knife worked even better than he'd been sure of, and that meant they still had a fighting chance. Taking advantage of their very brief open window of attack, he pounced, teeth sinking into flesh and bone. As the old man screamed and struggled in vain against his weight to throw him off again with another combat ward, his master lunged in, stabbing forward with the knife-  
  
  
  
  
He slowly started to come to with a weak groan, and the first thing he was aware of was that everything hurt. He could hear a voice -his master's- talking, and, unable to make out the words, he could only assume it was to him. Ugh, his head was buzzing again.  
  
He made an attempt to get up, but hands held him down, and the tone of voice was chiding. As the noise in his head subsided, he was able to begin understanding speech again.  
  
"-and _hold still_ , damn you, at least until I finish binding this."  
  
"Did we win?" Tiger slurred, his mouth feeling like it was full of raw cotton, seeds and burrs and all. Oh, he was in human shape. When had that happened?  
  
"He disappeared, but I don't know yet what that means, now _stop moving_."  
  
Tiger grumbled, but laid still until the binding around his shoulder was tied with a final tug, then he tried to twist around to get a look at his master. The chains alone had to have done some serious damage. Barnaby seemed to have other ideas, however, and it was almost like he was _avoiding_ Tiger's gaze as he fussed over less serious wounds. "In a minute," he said when Tiger attempted to catch his hand.  
  
Now he was sure the human was avoiding him. Growling softly, he lashed out and succeeded in catching the blond by an elbow, and it devolved into the most painful wrestling match he'd ever been part of before he finally managed to pin Barnaby on his back.  
  
The binding scars were disgusting. Though not life-threatening, they were still sluggishly oozing blood. Bruises and burns and other cuts littered his master's body, evident mostly by the holes in his clothes.  
  
But what made Tiger freeze was his eyes. Irises that had always been a clear, pretty malachite green now glowed - _glowed_ \- a muddier, sickly shade.  
  
Tiger's breath left him in a weak noise. " _Oh_."  
  
His master reached up and gently patted his cheek. "Don't make that face," he chastised softly, though it was clear he was troubled by his current state as well. "We both knew this was the most likely outcome."  
  
He nodded, but that was all he could do. His master had warned him time and time again, but he'd still been optimistic. And now-  
  
Then a thought hit him. "How long have you been like that?"  
  
"I woke up about an hour ago, why?"  
  
Tiger leaned down to nuzzle his master as much as their injuries would allow. "No walls fell in on me. Didn't get caught in a ward trap. Windows didn't impale me with glass."  
  
Barnaby managed a pained laugh that sounded more like a cough. "True. I suppose this means you're immune after all," he murmured, threading fingers into Tiger's dark hair.  
  
They didn't move for several minutes after that, taking what comfort they could find in their situation, until their wounds reminded them there were still things to be taken care of. Tiger allowed his master to finish seeing to his injuries before returning the favor, then was careful to stay by the human's side to keep him standing as the protection wards were renewed, just in case the old man were to return.  
  
Night had come and gone and the sun was high in the sky when they finally collapsed into bed, and Tiger made a sleepy little purr when his master snuggled close.  
  
The fact that he'd proven immune to the killing curse had been a boon,  but he couldn't afford to just sit on that. If the old man _was_ dead, as a spiteful part of him was hoping, then maybe he could get hold of the rest of those books. They could still potentially hold the information that could lead them to removing the curses permanently, or at least _that_ one.  
  
 _'And besides,'_ he thought as he began to doze off. _'I still have my promises to the birds and those servants to keep.'_  
  
  
  
  
His master had been very quiet in the days that had passed since the old man had vanished in their fight. Tiger worried a little, but he couldn't really blame him, since the young man was still struggling with the scale of his 'uncle's' betrayal. And besides, there was a lot that still needed to be done, like seeing to the protection wards and cleaning up the mess left in the binding room.  
  
But their store of meat was beginning to run low, even the cured stuff, and Tiger eventually shoved his head under the book his master was reading to get his attention, resting his head against Barnaby's leg as he changed shape.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"We should go hunting," Tiger said, and Barnaby made a small noise before looking away.  
  
"I don't think that would be a good idea."  
  
"Why not? Are you still hurting?" Their wounds had mostly finished healing, but Tiger still occasionally got twinges. And there was no telling what the binding chains had done. But his master shook his head, scratching gently behind his ear.  
  
"There's always the chance that we might pass too close to another hunting party or a caravan," Barnaby said quietly. "I can't take the risk of calling down disaster on people who have nothing to do with this just by being around."  
  
After a little thinking, he had to admit that Barnaby had a point. With him being immune, they had no idea what kind of range the killing curse had now that it was permanent. Long fingers lightly raised his chin, and he looked up.  
  
"Your collar still lets you in and out, you know. You can always go catch something for yourself."  
  
"I know," Tiger murmured. "But it's easier with you around," he said with a slightly sheepish grin. "And besides, I like hunting with you."  
  
Barnaby gave him a fond smile, but gently pushed him away. "Maybe we'll both be able to go again eventually, but for now, keep yourself fed, Tiger. That's an order."  
  
Changing back into a big cat, Tiger obediently headed out to go find food. But as he crossed the grounds and passed the dormant portal gate, he gave it a searching look. He'd been putting it off, wanting to let his master rebuild his strength, but now that it was clear Barnaby had no plans to leave the fortress at all for fear of accidentally harming an innocent, it seemed Tiger was going to have to break back into the old man's house sooner than later.  
  
  
  
  
Though the snow was still deep, the weather had warmed somewhat, and with it came opportunity. Tiger managed to bring down a massive wild boar that wouldn't have risked being out a few weeks ago, and dragged the carcass back through the outer walls of the fortress.  
  
He'd stopped for a rest in the abandoned village when his nose picked up the itchy burned air smell of magic. He tried to follow it, but the wind had begun to pick up a bit, and he soon lost the scent in the snow.  
  
His tail was twitching anxiously when he returned to his catch. Perhaps it had been his master.  
  
He _hoped_ it had been his master.  
  
His hopes were raised when he came closer to the central castle and found the young man in the courtyard, apparently working on something. Leaving behind the boar, he crunched his way through the snow to butt his head against Barnaby's hand in greeting. He could smell blood through the leather glove. Barnaby must have been working on the protection wards again, which soothed his nerves about the scent he'd been tracking earlier, but the fact that his master was afraid enough to be constructing more wards was a little worrying.  
  
But Barnaby greeted him with a warm smile and a familiar scratch on the ruff of his neck, and that calmed him enough that he went to retrieve his prize so it could be cleaned and cut in the kitchen.  
  
They had finished prepping the carcass and his master began work on dinner, so Tiger went to change shape and clean up and gather together clothing to dress. Dinner was already starting to smell really good when he came back downstairs, and his master looked up from his work, raising an eyebrow. "You may as well ask."  
  
He blinked. "Ask what?"  
  
"You have that look on your face that you always get when you're about to start with a lot of questions."  
  
He hadn't been aware he actually had a _look_ for that, and felt his face heat a bit in embarrassment as he sat down. But since his master had been the one to bring it up... "I didn't want to ask because you were still recovering, but... how long do you think you can keep the gateway open?"  
  
Barnaby considered the question, stirring absently at the stew. "I'm not really sure. I only ever had to keep it open a day or so before, so I would have to do some study. But you shouldn't be using it anyway, Tiger. We don't know what Uncle's current state is, and I don't want you to run the risk that he might still be alive just for-"  
  
"I know," Tiger said, resting his head on his arms. The other reason he hadn't wanted to ask was because he'd suspected this would be his master's response. But he could tell by now that while Barnaby wouldn't respond to concern for _himself_ , concern for _others_ was another story. And at least he wouldn't be telling a lie, so... "It's not... it's not just that. The old man has blood servants, and one of them helped me find the book I gave you. I made a binding agreement if we were able to beat him back, I'd break their collars so they wouldn't be stuck working for a dead master forever."  
  
His master said nothing for a long minute, but the change in his demeanor was obvious and Tiger felt a little guilty for playing that card. It was for the best, he told himself. He could get enough information to maybe help his master and keep his promise too, so it was okay. Still- He eased himself and went to the blond, sliding an arm around his waist and nuzzling him comfortingly.  
  
"If anything goes wrong, you'll come back through the gate that second."  
  
"Yes, sir."  
  
" _Promise_ me, Tiger," Barnaby ordered, voice surprisingly sharp and tension in every line of his body. " _That second_."  
  
It finally hit him then just how much waking up fully cursed and finding him unconscious and wounded must have scared the human, and he felt even more terrible for it having not entered his concerns earlier. He wrapped his other arm around the blond's waist as well, folding his master into a warm hug, and nosed at his neck. "Straight back. I promise," he murmured.  
  
Barnaby swallowed, then let out a slow breath, body easing as he subtly leaned into the hold and reached back to give him a gentle scratch. "All right. I'll see what I can manage."  
  
  
  
  
He was sweeping the dining hall, mostly just to have something to do while he waited for an answer, when his master approached. "Three days," Barnaby said.  
  
"Ah?" Tiger asked, looking up from his work.  
  
"At my current strength, I can keep the gate open for three days. After that, I'll have to let it go dormant for at least two weeks."  
  
Tiger perked up and nuzzled his master, and didn't fail to notice he was tense again. "Three days is more than enough. It takes just a little over one to get to the house, and the old man has some transportation talismans I can steal to shorten the time back."  
  
Barnaby gave a curt nod and they went out to the courtyard where the circle was. When the pink-colored electricity crackled and the gate erupted open, his master pressed something into his hand. Tiger looked down to find the ward-breaking knife, with a new leather sheath and strap. "Just in case," his master said quietly. "And remember-"  
  
"Straight back if anything happens," Tiger said, leaning in close enough to touch noses in a reassuring gesture. "I'll be careful, I swear."  
  
Another nod, and Barnaby relaxed a little and let go of the knife to let him drape it around his neck. Tiger hugged his master quickly, then shifted back to his natural shape and jumped through the gate.  
  
  
  
  
The landing on the other side was much easier this time, and though he was a bit on the dizzy side, at least he hadn't lost consciousness. Regaining his balance, he trotted out of the cave and headed straight for town.  
  
 _~You made it!~_ The little green bird chirped with an excited flap of her wings when she spotted him coming around the corner. The greeting made him brighten a little, and, after making sure no one was coming, he headed over and sat down in front of the window cage.  
  
 _~Looking a bit worse for wear, though,~_ the pink bird noted, tilting his head to peer at him closer. _~What happened?~_  
  
Tiger explained the events of the past few weeks as best he could, and showed them the knife that had probably saved him and his master both -they approved of the design, much to his glee- and told them why he'd come back. When he'd finished, the pair disappeared from their cage before wriggling out through the slot in the door again. _~We better go with you,~_ the pink bird said as he landed on the tiger's back and the little green bird settled herself between his ears. _~He's probably the type to have even nastier traps ready in the event of something happening to him. Extra eyes will come in handy.~  
  
~Good thinking,~_ Tiger agreed, and the three of them set off into the woods.  
  
  
  
  
The warning about worse traps had him much more alert as they drew near the house than he'd been the last time. When they reached the spot where he'd knocked into the briar wall before, he stopped and cautiously put out a paw.  
  
They all reacted in surprise when nothing happened. _~It's gone?~_ the green bird asked, cautiously reaching out with a wing to probe the same space.  
 _  
~Go slow,~_ the pink bird advised. _~It may have just shrunk. Or there could be other traps.~_  
  
Tiger nodded and carefully moved forward one step at a time, tense with nerves and skin prickling from the tiny talons clinging to his back and head anxiously. It would be terrible for them to get stuck if the thorn wall suddenly re-materialized, but the pink bird was right; rushing in had the possibility of setting off something even _worse._  
  
Only once he'd made it through the entire space the briars had occupied did any of them breathe again, and the green bird nearly lost her balance when he momentarily flopped on the grass in relief. It took him a few minutes to piece his nerves back together, then he got up and made his way towards the house with the pair fluttering after him to land on a windowsill. They all peered in to find the house apparently empty, then the jittery blond kid he'd talked to the last time came out of a hallway with a basket of clothes balanced on his hip. The grouchy redhead was still nowhere in sight, so Tiger decided to take the chance and went to lever a door open.  
  
The blond jumped with a squeak and dropped the laundry when he was spotted, then calmed down -a little- on recognizing him. "O- oh. You- ... You came back."  
  
Tiger reconstructed himself into his human shape. "I said I would, didn't I?" he asked as the two birds flew in to land on his head and shoulder. The absurd picture got the kid to ease up a bit more, even hiding a tiny smile. "Has... your boss been around lately?"  
  
The blond blinked at him, then looked at the floor, thinking. "Er- no, not for awhile now. He said he was going on one of his regular appointments- one of the northern lords' fortresses. He hasn't been back since, though- oh," he said when Tiger's look sharpened. "That wouldn't have been your master, would it?"  
  
"It would."  
  
"Does... that mean he's not coming back at _all_?"  
  
"We're not sure yet. That's why I'm trying to get as much done as soon as possible. We need into the lab you showed me before."  
  
Surprisingly, the blond gave a firm nod and led them downstairs without hesitation. Maybe the insinuation that today was the day he'd be leaving this place for good had given the human a bit of extra nerve.  
  
The laboratory itself didn't look much changed from the last time he'd been in it. Shooing the birds to do some searching for themselves, he transformed back to normal and went straight for the books he'd been forced to leave behind before. The blood smell was still strong, and so were the traps. This time, however, as soon as the first book attacked him with the burning stuff, the smaller bird flew over and spat some kind of green lightning at it that made the smoke disperse. _~What was that?~_ Tiger asked, smoothing down his fur from where his hackles had raised in surprise.  
  
 _~Little sister's species has the ability to break poison wards.~_ the pink bird explained. _~It wouldn't have done us any good on any physical traps, but-~_  
  
 _~Something like these book wards is as easy as cracking seeds,~_ the green bird finished, puffing out her chest proudly.  
  
 _~That's helpful,~_ Tiger agreed. _~What about you?~_ he asked the pink bird.  
  
 _~Big sis can see through illusions.~  
  
~Huh. I don't really have anything cool like that.~  
  
~No, but you can change a lot faster than we can and do that creepy little smoke self trick,~_ the pink bird said, peering into a box. _~It would take us half a day just to go human.~  
  
~And it really, really hurts,~_ the green bird added. _~So I guess we get extra magic abilities to make up for not being very good shifters.~_  
  
Very, very strange. But fair enough. He'd never really met that many bird-types, so it stood to reason that they might be quite different from cat-types. And now wasn't really the time for exchanging curiosities anyway. The green bird perched on the bookshelf, and Tiger began pulling out volumes for her to clear while the pink bird continued investigating other objects for anything that might be useful for helping his master. Both birds chittered in anger when the pink bird found some kind of cup that bore the hated sword and snake symbol, but Tiger couldn't find it in himself to be too surprised. As many unsavory dealings as the old man seemed to have had, the idea that he would have been working with the magic smugglers didn't strike him as strange in the slightest.  
  
They had managed to get all of the books into a pile on the floor and the pink bird had found some more vials that scented of his master's blood, when there was the sound of arguing from out in the hall. The door slammed open, making Tiger hiss and both birds squawk, but it was only the redheaded human male who stormed in, followed by the blond, who was trying in vain to calm him down. " _You,_ " the redhead snapped, leveling a finger at Tiger, then jerked aside the neckline of his shirt to reveal the collar brand. "Ivan says you can get rid of this. What in the nine hells are you just sniffing around here for?!"  
  
"I- I tried to explain what was going on-" 'Ivan' said, but Tiger shook his head.  
  
 _~Keep looking,~_ he told the birds, and they nodded and separated to continue the search while he reshaped himself human and took off the knife. "He's got a point; a deal's a deal. Gonna warn you both, though. This is gonna hurt just as much as getting those bindings put in."  
  
"Just do it."  
  
"Hold still," he ordered the redhead. Last thing he needed was the impatient bastard jerking enough that the knife slipped. Leaning in and concentrating on keeping his hand steady, he pressed the blade to the binding mark just hard enough to draw blood. The runes etched into the metal began to glow pink, just as they had when his master had saved himself from the chains, and the human made a sharp hiss as the glow made its way around his throat. To his credit, though, the man did hold still until Tiger pulled the knife away, then he backed off, a hand to the shallow cut.  
  
Tiger motioned Ivan forward, but both stopped when the pink bird made a loud, irate twittering noise. Tiger looked over his shoulder to see both birds fluttering in agitation around what looked like an ordinary crystal ball.  
  
 _Looked_ like.  
  
The pink bird could see through illusions.  
  
Tiger suddenly got a prickly foreboding feeling. Time to get this over and done with. Reminding Ivan to hold still, he quickly cut the binding around his neck as well.  
  
Then the birds _shrieked_ , flapping away from the crystal ball in panic as it suddenly began erupting thick black smoke. Tiger looked back to the human pair, and his stomach sank. The bindings. They had to have been the trigger somehow. He grabbed the cloth the birds had laid all of their finds on, and several of the transport talismans. "Everybody hang on!" he snapped, and the servants and other shifters latched onto him as he activated the first talisman.  
  
  
  
  
Like before, the talisman dropped them on the other side of what had once been the giant briar thicket. But it turned out not to be far enough from whatever the old man had planted in the event that some well-meaning sucker had been able to free his servants. The shockwave hit them like a moving wall, flinging them into the dirt or the trees. Tiger opened an eye to find himself surprisingly uninjured, but more or less _whumped_ back into his normal shape. Spitting out grass and dirt, he rolled onto his stomach. _~Ow. Everyone in one piece?~_  
  
There was a woozy chirp from a branch above, then the little green bird tumbled out of an overhead branch to land on his back. _~Ooh, can we not do that again? I think I left my stomach behind.~_  
  
 _~Agreed.~_ Everyone else seemed to be in similar disoriented, but otherwise minimally-harmed condition, and Tiger peered out of the bushes to see the house had been enveloped by... some kind of strange bubble full of the thick churning black smoke. _~What in the six realms is_ that _?~  
  
~Oh my,~_ the pink bird said from the leaves beside his head. _~I've never seen a sealing shield that dark before.~_  
  
 _~A sealing shield? How is that different from a protective ward?~  
  
~They're all-encompassing, and supposed to be unbreakable except by the one who casts them.~_  
  
A failsafe of sorts, then. The old man had wanted to make sure that if _he_ wasn't around to make use of his labs and servants, no one _else_ would be able to either. Fine by him, really. The fewer people who could put the old man's cruel work to the same purpose he'd used it for, the better. And if, by some unfortunate chance, it turned out 'Uncle' _wasn't_ dead, the bubble shield would be the perfect alarm to his return. _~Leave it, then. But what do we do with them?~_ he asked, glancing in the direction of the ex-servants. _~I can't exactly take them with me, what with the curses and all.~  
  
~Oh, we know just the place. The little miss has a friend who runs a halfway home for freed bondsmen.~  
  
~He's got a little too much air between his ears, if you ask me,~_ the pink bird added. _~But he's a good soul, and he'll take excellent care of them until they're ready to strike out on their own.~  
  
~Great, because distance or no distance, there's no way my master didn't feel that backlash through the gate. I have to get home before he gets worried.~_ Pulling his head back through the bush, he changed shape to face the humans. "We're going to make another jump, and then I need you two to follow my friends here."  
  
"And why should we?" Red asked.  
  
"Because they know some nice people who are going to help you out," Tiger replied, unable to keep the tiniest hint of exasperation out of his voice at the continued confrontational attitude. He didn't have _time_ for this. The redhead looked like he'd argue, but Ivan startled him with a sharp tug on his sleeve and shake of his head.  
  
' _Damn, the kid might grow himself a spine yet,_ ' Tiger thought, impressed, as the birds landed on his shoulders and both humans grabbed his hand. Finding the talisman he'd used to get them out of the house, he activated it again.  
  
  
  
  
He barely stopped long enough to shed his passengers and take the tied 'bag' of artifacts and books before changing back to his natural shape and activating the talisman for the last time. The second he landed, he bolted for the gate. Without slowing pace, he leaped through-  
  
-and both he and his master went down in a heap as he collided with the human on the other side. He made a muffled little apologetic growl around the bundle in his mouth as he rolled off the young man, depositing his prizes on the floor.  
  
"It's fine," Barnaby said, mussing his fur lightly as he sat up. "I'm just glad you came back all right after the way the gate rippled like that."  
  
So he'd been right about the shield's backlash reaching the gate. Proud of himself for keeping his promise not to worry his master too much, Tiger purred loudly and nuzzled into the hand petting him before pushing the 'sack' forward with his paw. Barnaby leaned over to pick it up as he got to his feet, and the big cat trotted by his master's side as they headed up to the study and the gateway closed behind them.  
  
As Barnaby began lighting the lamps, Tiger found himself drooping a bit. Now that the high of the escape was beginning to wear off, he was beginning to feel all the walking and running he'd done, and started with a sleepy little snort when a hand lifted his chin, scratching that one particular spot that still never failed to make him turn to jelly.  
  
"Go ahead and get some rest, Tiger," Barnaby said, indicating one of the many cushions that had been left around for him to nap on. "You've done more than enough work for now, and I can take it from here for awhile."  
  
He didn't really want to sleep; he wanted to stick close in case his master uncovered more terrible things about his curse. But once he'd laid down on the cushion closest to the desk the human was going to be working at, he found it very hard to keep his eyes open. Yawning widely, he curled himself into a ball and draped his tail over his eyes, and sleep overcame him quickly.  
  
  
  
  
The next few weeks were mostly quiet. As Barnaby dug further and further into the depths of his 'uncle's' dark work, Tiger acted as a second pair of hands or busied himself with keeping his master from completely ignoring his health while he studied.  
  
Almost a month after his trip through the gate, Tiger noticed that the store of meat was beginning to run dangerously low again. He'd been rationing as much as possible, even though his stomach didn't like being deprived of it, because he hadn't wanted to leave his master alone and vulnerable if it turned out one of the books still had more traps in it. But it couldn't be helped; they had to eat. So after checking in with Barnaby, he used his collar to leave the fortress.  
  
Luck and weather didn't favor him enough to find anything massive like a deer or a boar, but he did manage to track down several fat pheasants and a couple of snowbirds. If he mostly stuck to his human form for awhile, they'd at least tide the pair of them over for a couple more weeks. And maybe by then, he'd have better conditions to hunt in. He dragged the string of birds home and to the kitchens to pluck and clean, then shifted himself and dressed to do so.  
  
He quite literally bumped into his master on the way back to the kitchens and was taken aback by the dark look on the young man's face. "What's wrong?"  
  
"The curse combination remains unbreakable," Barnaby said quietly. "But there's a way to... reverse, I guess you could say, the binding wards. Turn them back to their original five-year duration."  
  
"Well, that's great! Let's go do it!"  
  
"I can't."  
  
"Why not?" Tiger asked, and his master looked away. "Why not?" he asked again, pressing harder after an uncomfortable minute.  
  
"The original bindings... It's complicated, but to make a circle that will remove the shortened time limits Uncle imposed... requires shifter blood. A lot of it."  
  
 _Oh._ If other spells he'd designed had similar reversal needs, that explained a lot about why the old man would have been associating with the smuggler ring. And why he would have wanted to keep his work a locked-down secret. Still. "So? Come on," Tiger said, and his master raised his head, expression sharp.  
  
"No."  
  
Tiger opened his mouth to argue, but Barnaby put a hand over it. " _No_ , Tiger. Your devotion to me has been far stronger than I could have ever asked for, and, make no mistake, I'm grateful for it. But you've done and gone through far too much as it is, and I _refuse_ to order that of you."  
  
He nipped his master's fingers to make him pull his hand back. "You're not _ordering_ ; I'm _offering_. And... there might be a little selfish intent in it as well." The human gave him a questioning look, so Tiger swallowed and continued. "I _miss_ you. I know the threat had been on us from the very beginning, but this... _cloud_ the old man has you under even after he's gone... I can't _stand_ it. If giving up blood is what it takes to get the master who shared a campfire with me back, then so be it." When it looked like Barnaby wouldn't give in, he gently framed his master's face with his hands. " _Please_ ," he begged softly. "I trust you to make this work. We'll be _fine_."  
  
Barnaby held his stare, then closed his eyes and sighed. "I don't know who's the bigger fool in this, you for always insisting or me for always being swayed. But let's get this over with."  
  
  
  
  
He quickly finished his kitchen chores and went up to the binding room, only to find it heavily sealed, the door unable to be opened. Wh- He blinked at it in confusion until he heard some kind of scratching noise from down the hall. Following the sound, he found his master using some of the etching tools from the workshop to meticulously carve a new runic design into the floor of one of the other empty rooms. "Why aren't we using the old circle?"  
  
"Easier to simply construct a new runic pattern than to attempt to alter an old one. Besides, I would like to work with as little of his tainted material as I can possibly manage. The amount I already have to rely on is bad enough."  
  
Tiger had to agree with his master on that. As he waited for the circle to be finished, he could feel nervousness beginning to set in, and tried in vain to shake it off. He was the one who'd insisted on doing this, he reminded himself. No getting cold feet now.  
  
After over an hour, Barnaby finally sat back and wiped the sweat from his face with the back of his glove.  
  
"Are we ready?" Tiger asked, and his master nodded. He changed back to his natural state and wriggled out of the clothing, then padded across the floor to wind himself around the human. Barnaby paused in the act of shedding his own outer clothes and gently rubbed the bridge of the big cat's nose.  
  
"You can still say no," the blond said softly, other hand coming up to scratch his ears. "I won't be angry if you back out."  
  
Tiger growled in reply and butted his head against his master's shoulder and neck as he sat down, the denial clear. After a second's hesitation, Barnaby nodded and gave him one last scratch and, much to his surprise, kissed him lightly between the eyes before leaning back to retrieve a knife. "If we have any luck left, this will be the only time you have to go through this," he said with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, and Tiger nosed him again in reassurance before curling around him.  
  
Barnaby took a deep breath, then cut his palm and pressed his bloody hand to the circle.  
  
  
  
  
The pain was _excruciating_. This was one time where his resistance to magic didn't help him in the slightest. His body's reactive attempts to fight off the chains only made them hurt _worse_ as they slashed into his flesh. Fingers clenched tightly in his fur told him his master wasn't faring much better, and he curled tighter around the human, struggling not to add teeth to their desperate, awkward embrace.  
  
"It's almost over, I promise."  
  
He somehow heard the rasp near his ear despite the roar of the wind and electricity in the air around them, and squeezed his eyes shut. He could hold out. He _could_. If his master had been able to go through this agony as a _child_ , he _certainly_ wasn't going to jeopardize them both by being any weaker.  
  
The chains whipped into them both one last time, and then the world went white when they shattered.  
  
"-glories, _please_ wake up. _Tiger_."  
  
Barnaby's voice sounded so far away, even as he managed to crack his eyes open with much effort. Exhaustion curled through every vein and sinew, and he couldn't even manage to lift his head. When he made a weak, barely audible growl, hands did it for him, and he tried in vain to make his vision focus.  
  
He couldn't make out any details of his master's face.  
  
But he could see that glow still radiating from the human's eyes.  
  
For a moment, despair that they'd failed swelled up hot and painful in his chest. Then he realized that no, something _had_ changed. His master's eyes still glowed, yes, but were the shade of green they were _supposed_ to be, not the ill-looking dull color they'd been since the curse had taken full effect.  
  
He only got to look a moment longer before arms wrapped around his neck, hands stroking and petting his fur. "You had me worried," Barnaby murmured, hugging him fiercely, and the relief in his master's voice made him weakly attempt to nuzzle the human before Barnaby helped him lie back down. The blond disappeared from view for a minute, then those hands tilted his head to press something to his mouth; a water skein, he figured out when he caught the scent. He gratefully gulped down everything he was given, then laid his head on the cold stone again.  
  
It had gotten dark at some point while he'd been unconscious. And that was the last thing he was aware of before sleep took him over again.  
  
  
  
  
Barnaby was much more attentive now that the curse was properly bound again, Tiger noticed. It was kind of a pity that he was still too busy recuperating from having all his strength sapped to enjoy it, or be able to turn human to voice his appreciation. Purring and nuzzles were apparently enough, though, as he was always rewarded for them with more petting.  
  
But Tiger found himself enjoying something more than the attention. Those faint, warm smiles that had always given him a fluttery feeling in his chest and stomach came more often, and seemed more genuine. The curses may have still been present, but the cloud of depression that had choked everything since he'd brought home that first book had _finally_ started to loosen its stranglehold on his master, and _that_ was definitely worth having to spend more hours than usual sleeping for awhile longer.  
  
Gradually, he could feel his strength rebuilding itself. It got easier to stay awake and stretch and move, and soon he was trotting by his master's side again as the blond did work around the castle. It took him awhile longer to actually be able to _help_ , and he was still nowhere near being able to change back and forth to human form again, but it didn't seem to bother his master at all. Barnaby just seemed content with his company like before.  
  
There was still the lurking question of how much the curse had been restrained, though, and as long as he couldn't become human, he couldn't ask it. Even if his master could be around people all the time again, though, he wasn't sure Barnaby would _want_ to, at least not yet. And that was okay, really. They'd gotten along just fine with the short forays together or Tiger going into the villages alone. And there was always the gate, since his master had promised to allow him to visit the birds sometimes. He didn't mind the human keeping a little isolated himself for awhile.  
  
There was just _one_ thing he really missed.  
  
"Tiger?"  
  
The big cat raised his head and yawned sleepily-  
  
-then sat bolt upright.  
  
Hunting gear.  
  
His master was wearing _hunting_ gear for the first time since spring had arrived, and that soft smile with it. "Feeling up to going out for a few hours?" Barnaby asked.  
  
Suddenly feeling as energetic as a cub because yes, _yes, this_ was the thing he'd been missing and he _really_ wanted to go, Tiger rolled off the windowseat cushion he'd been napping on and wound himself around the human, purring and growling eagerly. Chuckling, his master rubbed his nose and ears, giving his fur an affectionately rough scruffing that only made him purr louder as he reared up on his hind legs to return the gesture in his own way.  
  
"Come on then, let's go see what we can find," Barnaby said after finally pushing him back down to all four paws, then reached out to pull open the heavy kitchen door.  
  
And off they went into the snow together.


End file.
